Ml 






Book .BssMs - 




Ri:y H. \V. HOLTON, D. D. 




FRED. J YOUNGQUI:^T. 



THE MIHROR 



ADDRESSES 



-BY- 



H. W. BOLTON. 



PUBLIvSHED BY 

YOUNGQUIST & BOLTON, 

West Superior, Wis., 

I898. 




pm%J0OPY, 









Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1898 

by 
F. J. YOUNGQUIST AND H. W. BoLTON, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washing- 
ton, D. C. 






JVED. 



PRINTED BY F. B. GREGG, WEST SUPERIOR, WIS, 



Cfatm. 






DEDICATION. 



This work is affectionately dedicated to 
the members of Choirs wbo have so ably sup- 
ported rqe iri the several Chuches where the 
Addresses were delivered. 

TJlE flUTflOf?. 



■/ ■- -^'\^'^^Jff\ 



CONTENTS. 



Young Me:^ as Seek by Ladies, - - 13 

You:n"G Ladies as SEE]sr by GejN^tlemejSt, 39 

Clergymen as Seen by Laymen, - - 61 

Laymen as Seen by Pastors, - - - 85 

Parents as Seen by Children, - - 107 

Care of Childpjen, ------ 131 

Childlen as Seen by Parents, - - 155 

The Flag, ---------- 172 

Ideals, - 175 

Helps for Young Men, . - . . 201 




^'^J 



i^''^ 



INTRODUCTION. 



The discourses that make up this volume were 
originally written as a series of sermons, entitled 
^'Faults as Seen by Others." 

Following a plan suggested by the work of 
Dr. Miller, of Philadelphia, the author sent out 
letters requesting a candid statement of the faults 
of pulpit and pew, of young men and young 
women, of parents and children. The follow- 
ing chapters are based largely upon the answers 
to these letters. 

In putting forth this little book, the author is 
aware that no epithet is more opprobrious than 
that of fault-finding, therefore he wishes to call 
the reader's attention to two classes of 
fault-finders. There are those who go 
about peering and prying into the pitiable 
weaknesses of frail humanity, and at each 
discovery maliciously and exultingly crying 
out, "Eureka! here is another fault!" On the 
other hand, there are those who cannot help but 
see a friend's usefulness crippled and his good 



INTRODUCTION. 



intentions thwarted by a fault of whose exist- 
ence he is not aware, and they do him the true 
kindness to show him the blight upon his soul's 
growth. 

It is not an easy thing to do, for the author 
questions if any person living enjoys having his 
faults rehearsed, yet it is the best service any one 
can render the one who desires to rid himself 
of his errors. 

Brutus says candidly to his dearest friend: ^'I 
do not like your faults." *^A friendly eye w^ould 
never see such faults," retorts the petulent Cas- 
sius. To which the manly Brutus replies: "A 
flatterer's would not, though they did appear as 
huge as high Olympus." 

There is too much fulsome flattery in the so- 
cial world. What we need is the courage of a 
Brutus to hold up before a friend's gaze a true 
picture of himself, however painful it may be 
for us to exhibit it, or for him to look upon it. 
No doubt it is far more pleasing to look upon 
a delicately tinted water-color portrait of our- 
selves than upon a photograph taken by the X- 
ray process, yet if a deadly bullet were lodged 
somewhere near the heart, it would be exposed 



INTRDUCTION. 



by the hideous X-ray photograph and not by the 
tinted water-color. 

It is related of a certain author that, before 
putting forth a new edition of a book, he sent 
copies to the best literary critics with the re- 
quest: ^'Please criticise remorselessly, for I 
want the new edition to be as nearly perfect as 
possible.'' Every day is the publication of a new 
edition of our lives. Let us not put it forth 
blindly trusting in our own infallibility, but 
rather court the kindly criticism that leads us 
toward perfection. 



k 



y'-yir:^?^^ 



FIRST ADDRESS. 



Young }Ker^ as Seen 
bg Liadies. 



y^^y 



''Cleanse Cbou me from Secret faults/' 



44 



SbrinK not Drotber$: will Ve yieia; 
^Pill ye duit iDe painful field/' 



O! what a miracle to man is man! 
Triumphantly dressed! what joy! what dread! 
Alternately transported and alarmed! 
What can preserve my life? or what destroy? 
An angel's arm can't snatch me from the grave! 
Legions of angels can't confine me there. 

— Young. 

*Twas in this form the great Immanuel 
Revealed himself; the apostolic twelve, 
Like those who since have ministered the word, 
Were men. 'Tis a great thing to be a man. 

J. G. Holland. 



YOUNG MEN AS SEEN BY LADIES. 



*'Oft in life's stillest shock reclining, 
In desolation unrepining, 
Without a hope on earth to And 
A mirror in a watching mind. 
Meek souls there are, who little dream, 
Their daily deeds are angels' theme, 
Or that the rod they take so calm 
Shall prove in heaven a martyr's palm." 

— John Keble. 

Man must see himself and know of his needs 
before he can appreciate the help within his 
reach. 

THE BOOK. 

There is in "The Book" given of God evi- 
dence of knowledge concerning our needs with 
some unseen intelligence. J^one can read it 
without being impressed with the fact that some 
had knew of our coming, and the needs that 
would be developed. If overtaken with guilt 
there is pardon with Him whom God hath ex- 
alted to remain at His right hand to be a Prince 
and a Saviour, to give repentence to Israel and 



14 YOUNG MEN 



forgiveness of sins. Here is cleansing for the 
unclean, cheer for the sick, hope for the dying 
and solace for the afflicted. I have never found 
a man who, on coming to the light, did not find 
that his every thought and feeling had been reg- 
istered by the Infinite, nor have I heard of a man 
80 benighted by sin, dwarfed by wicked prac- 
tices or hardened by indifference as to silence 
the voice of God, who is constantly calling men 
to behold themselves, and the possibility of be- 
coming companions with angels in the home of 
deity, hence I invite all who may read this chap- 
ter to look with God's mirror for a few minutes. 
While others portray their faults in view of rev- 
elation, denunciation and cleansing; not that I 
think of you personally as having faults, needing 
light to disclose or reveal them, but as repre- 
sentatives of a multitude less favored than you 
are, who may be indifferent to the blemishes 
seen by others, such as deprive them of much 
that God designed they should have, and such 
as wdll finally shut them out of His society and 
the companionship of the redeemed. 
SECRET FAULTS. 
Faults may be so hidden as to be unknown to 



AS SEEN BY LADIES. - 15 

wearer and observer, both are often surprised 
beyond measure to find them secretly working 
on the young man of promise and hope. 

Alexander Smith once said: "What strangers 
we are to ourselves." There are unexplored 
depths in every heart. It is written ''no man by 
searching can find out God." With equal pro- 
priety we may write no man by searching can find 
out man. He must disclose or go unknown to 
all who sojourn with him. 

COLUMBUS OF THE SOUL. 
It will take some Columbus of the Soul, with 
Square and Compass, Light and Truth, to locate 
the islands, forests and caves of the human con- 
sciousness from whence some of the thoughts and 
suggestions that come trooping into our minds 
originate or reside. 

REVELATIONS. 

Secret yet ruinous. Some years ago a gentle- 
men going through the old world was overtaken 
by night and crawled into an old deserted castle. 
Being weary he soon fell asleep. A heavy pres- 
sure on the chest awakened him, and at that mo- 
ment the moon shone in through the crevices of 



i6 YOUNG MEN 



the wall to reveal a large serpent on his bosom. 
He saw his danger, sprang and escaped. Surely 
he was safer after he saw his condition than be- 
fore. So is every one having faults better off 
after he knows of them and sees them than hav- 
ing them unawares; or being ignorant of them. 

Then there are faults known to us curtained 
in privacy, housed in sacred cloisters into which 
none are ever invited. They are held from pop- 
ular gaze while others know of them of whom 
we are ignorant. They are too sacred ever to be 
referred to and we wish we might remove them, 
bury them in some quiet grave, unknown, un- 
seen and alone. 

TO BE BURIED. 

Go into the presence of the Most High, and 
settle all the secrets as secrets, and he will for- 
give if guilt be found therein. He will cleanse 
if in cherishing the spirit has become impure. 
He will banish if they trouble thee. Matthew 
6-6. 1st John 7-9. Ps. 103-12. ''But if for 
any reason they be cherished they will grow into 
sightliness, publish themselves and advertise the 
reagon for their presence." It is this that makes 



^f- . 



AS SEEN BY LADIES. 17 

men so willing to say of themselves that which 
it would not be safe for others to say of them. 

'^CLEANSE THOU ME." 

This word cleanse is borrowed from the law. 
It means more than the renovation of the heart. 
It means a judicial equipment which every one 
may have who confesses his sins and acknowl- 
edges his faults. What then are some of the 
faults seen by ladies. 

The first and chief fault of our young men in 
this age is a false conception of their responsi- 
bilities and obligations. Many of them seem to 
think nothing has ever been settled or ever can 
be until they take it in hand. Their chief busi- 
ness is to point out the mistakes of those who 
preceded them, and their ability to correct them. 
I do not sympathize with Miss Lillian Bell in all 
that she has written. She is often too sweeping 
and indiscriminate. She says ''the young men 
of today never take their eyes off themselves. 
Some of them find the study of themselves so 
fascinating that they cannot leave off." Such a 
young man will fully endorse Pope's lines, ''The 
proper study of mankind is man/' and he is that 



i8 YOUNG MEN 



man. Join in his pursuit if you will; show the 
wildest enthusiasm in his golf record, or how 
many lumps of sugar he takes in his coflfee, and 
he will not evince any surprise. You are only 
showing your good taste. You may hold his at- 
tention for a few moments while you eulogize 
his greater weakness, but he believes it all so 
thoroughly that even that soon bores him. 

Try to talk to a man under thirty-five on any 
subject except himself! Bait him with different 
topics of universal interest and try to pursuade 
him to leave his own point of view long enough 
to look through the eyes of the world, and 
then notice the blind stupidity with which he 
avoids your dexterous efforts, and mentally lies 
down to worry his Ego again, like a dog with a 
bone. The only thing I can think of to take 
his mind off of himself, is to build a fire under 
him. The conceit of one of these men is the 
most colossal specimen of psycholigical architec- 
ture in existence. As a social study, when I 
have him under the microscope, I can enjoy this. 
I revel in it just as I do a view of the ocean or 
the heavens at night — anything so vast that I 
cannot see to the end of it. Not so, I have 



AS SEEN BY LADIES. 19 

not found it thus, but the flippancy with which 
some young men criticise and denounce the 
achievements of their fathers, boast of their intel- 
lectuality and the confidence with which they 
rely on their new^ly constructed theories, especi- 
ally in political, judicial and theological interests, 
leads one to think there is some ground for tliis 
criticism. 

WAIT. 

We are all glad to admit that the advance 
guards of scientific research has thrown a new 
lio-lit on works once held sacred and declared to 
be authentic and credible, but our young men 
are not always careful to w^ait until the windows 
are all open and some fact has been established 
contradictory to the decisions of the fathers be- 
fore they denounce all standards and cry out 
against those which have stood amid the shifting 
scenes of time unmoved. 

Modesty would suggest that reformers and 
reconstructors wait until the new light touch 
some valley beyond the peaks of vision and give 
us some new discovery before they denounce the 
old. Young men will do well to recall the fact 



. .^.I'^^iTr^^ 



20 YOUNG MEN 



that the kaleidoscope of time is still turning. 
Subsequent revelations may swing their crea- 
tions back on the old foundations as the sure 
word of prophesy and their speculations pass 
away in the breeze of the morning. 

SCIENTISTS, 

Had the scientist settled the question of all 
forms moving southward by the measurements 
and observations at Bunker Hill and Washing- 
ton monuments in the evening as the sun set, he 
might liave felt all who did not agree with him 
fools, for they had swung south half an inch 
during the day, but he waited until morning 
and found at sunrise that they were both back 
in place again. 

DANGER. 

Just here is great danger, there is but a nar- 
row margin between reliance and conceit. He 
who has had repeated successes in the use of 
certain methods is almost sure to be filled with 
a self-confidence most helpful and even com- 
mendable, but he may cross the line from confi- 
dence to conceit by thinking or feeling that he 
can accomplish the same things in all fields. He 



w:" 



AS SEEN BY LADIES. 21 

who feels that he can run a church by use of the 
methods that have given him success in the 
present is very likely to fail, for every church is 
a problem to be solved by the use of the facts in 
hand; no physician can use precisely the same 
remedies successfully with all patients, and this 
law holds good in all fields; therefore it becometh 
all men of all professions to be modest in their 
prophecies and to increase confidence and escape 
conceit by testing their methods and comparing 
their lives with the lives of superiors. 

DECLINED THE TITLE. 

In the second century, the church of Lyons was 
fearfully persecuted. Cast into narrow and 
foul dungeons, in which many suffered tortures 
and all were weakened, yet when addressed as 
martyrSj they declined the title, saying '^that title 
belongs to Christ first, and only to such as actu- 
ally endure tortures and agony for the gospel's 
sake. We are but confessors poor and lonely; 
we humbly entreat that continued prayer be of- 
fered in our behalf." 

FIRST CHAPTERS. 

It would be well if w^e could all learn that 



^:^}-^fi:rT^^JT^ 



YOUNG MEN 



God has not put all the good things into the first 
chapters of life. He has left some mountain 
visions, ocean depths and hidden mines for ages 
and made experience the means of securing 
them. 

TREATMENT OF WOMEN. 

The second fault mentioned by most of the la- 
dies to whom we wrote was that of a false esti- 
mate of woman's position in and worth to society. 
There is a tendency toward the treatment of 
women as equals, and because of that there may 
be an omission of those little delicate attentions 
that once characterized the truly gallant young 
man; but this, I believe, is the result of woman's 
advance in society, and the taking on of those 
prerogatives which were once held as sacred to 
man. 

Change in office and relation may make it 
appear as though man had lost all respect for 
women. For instance, once a gentleman felt 
himself too mean to be tolerated if he sat in the 
car or parlor and suffered a lady to stand; but at 
that time woman was looked on as the weaker 
and her appeal was the cry of weakness, a mo- 
tive women themselves would spurn today, for 



AS SEEN BY LADIES. 23 

they feel themselves and often are men's physic- 
al peers. 

COMMANDING. 
Possibly she may have been commanding him 
in the oflSce to do certain things such as kept 
him all day upon his feet while she sat in a chair, 
and gave directions through the telephone or by 
some messenger, and in such a case he ought to 
sit and she can afford to stand. 

MISTAKES. 

Then there are two grave mistakes growing out 
of a perversion or misapprehension of Christian 
advancement. 

First, there are a large company of young men 
who look on women as a means of amusement; 
to such her personal appearance, power to 
please, entertain and gratify, regardless of men- 
tal or moral ability, is the one question and the 
one thing she strives for; secondly, the rescuing 
of women from slavery by the preaching of the 
gospel has led many to look on her as an idol to 
be worshiped. Neither of these can be pleasing 
to a sensible woman, for there is a conviction in 
every womanly heart that she was given of God 



24 YOUNG MEN 



not for frivolty or idolatry, but as a friend, com- 
panion, helpmeet and equal to man, and I be- 
lieve every man wlio honors his mother, respects 
his sister, will look on woman in that light, for 
he who speaks sluringly, disrespectfully or fails 
to do that which his relations required, for wo- 
man's happiness, dishonors himself, his mother, 
and brings reproach to the name of his sex. 

THIRD FAULT. 

Thirdl}^, the third fault mentioned by these 
ladies w^as '*want of refinement and gentleness;" 
that there is a tendency to treat all gentleness as 
feminine, suited only to women, is true. Some 
young men seem to think roughness is strength; 
but no greater mistake was ever made. True 
gentleness and refinement are always beautiful 
and the beautiful in man is always strength and 
manliness. A young man may not know the 
rules of etiquette prevailing in a city, state or 
kingdom; he may not be able to pose gracefully 
in a drawing room or parlor, but he can be a 
gentleman. Then his every act will show that 
he has true refinement, and refinement is 
strength. He will be felt and never start out 
not knowing what to turn his hands to, or what 



AS SEEN BY LADIES 25 

profession or calling to enter. He will have 
some profession or calling, and the question of 
which will engage his most serious thought and 
earnest study before coming to any decision. He 
will seek to be what nature intended him to be. 
This is of great importance, for if he is anything 
else, he is worse than nothing. The most utter- 
ly false and mischevious notion that has ever ob- 
tained a lodgment in the popular mind is the 
idea that, to be respectable or honorable among 
men, one must either be a doctor, lawyer, or 
preacher. The idea has spoiled many a good 
carpenter, done injustice to the sledge, and com- 
mitted fraud on the potato field. Better a first- 
class blacksmith, shoemaker or clerk, than a 
starving preacher, doctor or lawyer. 
BOOKS, 
Let every young man put away all affectation 
and seek culture along all lines, reading books 
from the best authors, spending all his leisure 
moments with the best minds, and he will find 
that it goes a long way toward refining the spir- 
it, and the spirit will polish the man and thus fit 
him for the most critical centers and p osition 
of the age. 



26 YOUNG MEN 

WORTHY AMBITION. 

A worthy ambition, sucli as will shut off un- 
worthy claims, shut out undesirable thoughts, in- 
troduce healthy exercise and desirable discipline, 
is most to be coveted. Better ignorant of the 
secret of entertainment, the rest of recreation, 
the revelations of science, the pleasures of 
wealth, responsibility and fame, than have them 
all by inheritance and be unable to maintain self 
respect and honor. " 

SWISS HUNTER, 
There is a story of a Swiss hunter that runs 
thus: For years he had supported his family by 
hunting in the mountains and living in a little 
hut; was afterward induced to give up his abode 
and move to a cottage which stood beside the 
pass in the lower Alps. Here he acted as guide 
and for that service often received liberal re- 
wards. The first time he became possessor of 
gold it fascinated him and gave him a taste for 
that pleasure found in hoarding wealth, and one 
day while hunting he found a cabin in a low 
' mountain nook; he removed a stone so that he 
might sit beneath the shade of a rock at noon- 
tide and eat his lunch. Imagine if you can his 



AS SEEN BY LADIES. 27 

surprise at perceiving a vase filled with gold coin 
and glittering ore. He became frantic, yea, in- 
sane with joy. On his return that night he kept 
the secret even from his wife. Day after day 
he visited the place to feast his eyes on the daz- 
zling wealth, he lost interest in hom.e, wife and 
children. He no longer bounded over the hill 
in search of game or cared to guide the moun- 
tain traveler. His family suffered for want of 
food. He himself became gloomy, spent his 
time watching the vase and counting the money. 
One day as he lay upon the ground, worship 
ping his treasure, a portion of the rock that 
formed the cave fell and pinned him to the 
earth; vainly he struggled and cried for help, 
but he was too far from the line of march for 
anyone to hear him, hence he died in agony. 
Days and weeks were spent by his friends, who 
finally found the body and the gold coin firmly 
clutched in his dead fingers. 

FOLLY, 

The folly of this foolish hunter is so apparent 
as to almost provoke indignation, and yet it is 
not less foolish than that class of young men who 



-i: ;7 ' ^-^ 



28 YOUNG MEN 



spend their whole time in seeking those accom- 
plishments which make them entertaining Jind 
attractive as victims to vice. Young men who 
are always re&dy to receive without weighing 
the obligations such gifts levy, forget or never 
think what the securing of wealth, the elevation 
to power, the retention of gifts mean in the 
minds of others, nor to what it may expose them. 
A donor may give in view of preparing the way 
to ask a favor, and the receiver may feel when 
asked that it would be unkind and unmanly to 
refuse. .Nothing can save men nnder such cir- 
cumstances, but a holy ambition 

TO BE RIGHT 

and suffer nothing to deter them from the right 
that is the only safeguard in such a moment. It 
will hold the young man steady, though he may 
grieve the asker, therefore be careful not to ac- 
cept from the hands of anyone not in sympathy 
with your motives and principles any present 
that can establish claims and if you have made 
that mistake, and find yourself under obligation, 
cultivate a high and holy ambition sufficient to 
stand by your principles and return the favor or 



AS SEEN BY LADIES. 29 

gift in some other way. Again, it will shut ofi 
evil thoughts such as lead to evil indulgences. 
The comforts and luxuries of some homes and 
professions are leaving some young men far down 
the scale. Things go so pleasantly and easily 
with them that in the absence of some high goal 
they pass on through the years of possible ad- 
vancement to find themselves left with the easy- 
going self-satisfied multitude, and wonder why 
they are not called for and chosen to fill posi- 
tions of trust. 

The time has come when this world has no 
further use or room for men without energy and 
persistency, therefore let no young man delude 
himself with the thought I have friends in posi- 
tion who will order my success and see to it that 
I am put in position to succeed. I want to say 
to young men, that is false, your friends will not 
more, they cannot do it. 

CARRY YOU. 

All systems are so well organized and science 
is so thoroughly in hand, that no man or party 
can carry successfully a palsied limb, they de- 
mand amputation and enterprise will see to it 



30 YOUNG MEN 



that the man or party successfully at work is re- 
lieved of all haiigers-on. Again, it is well to 
ask ourselves with somewhat of earnestness 
whether we have the stamina to meet and suc- 
cessfully overthrow the influences of wealth, 
fame and worldly honors. Only about three out 
of a hundred ever have had. 

Shall we hastily enter the race and go down 
with the 97, or studiously strive to rise with the 
three. Presumption has ruined its millions and 
''mortals still rush in where angels fear to tread." 

FOURTH. 

The ladies charge young men with cowardice. 
None of us will admit this charge without a 
fight. No soldier was ever made to acknowl- 
edge himself a coward; no, not in the most hotly 
contested battles. Bat may we not find within 
us a kind of timidity that the ladies call coward- 
ice from their standpoint. 

YOUNG OFFICER. 

I went into the army with a brilliant young 
clergyman who was chosen captain of the com- 
pany, in which I served. lie was just of that 
nature; the result was he fell, came home a 



:«»^': 



AS SEEN BY LADIES. 31 

ruined man. He felt that he could not retain 
the respect of the officers of the regiment with- 
out doing as they did, hence he sipped at the 
wine,' drank, fell. jSTow, the whole thing is a 
delusion, ungodly men themselves think more of 
a boy or man who under such circumstances can 
say, No, sir; I never drink. The minute one 
begins to excuse himself^ and say, ^'I don't feel 
very well tonight, but I don't think wine would 
help me. I think it usually makes me feel 
w^orse; you'll excuse me, please, for this time." 
That man is on the road to ruin; his friends will 
scorn him and he will hate himself, for every 
man who has not the courage of his own convic- 
tions is at the mercy of all evil from all sources. . 
, MY BOY. 
A few years ago at a religious convention in 
the city of Boston, the subject of temperance 
came up for discussion and some of the clergy 
advocated total abstinence, others moderate 
drinking. A very influential clergyman arose 
to defend the use of wine as a splendid token of 
hospitality. As he sat down a layman arose, 
trembling with emotion. He asked if he might 
be allowed to speak. Certainly, was the hearty 



32 YOUNG MEN 



response. Speak! He said: "Mr. Moderator, 
it is not my purpose in rising to answer the 
learned argument to which you have just lis- 
tened. My object is more humble. I once 
knew a father in moderate circumstances, who 
w^as at much inconvenience to educate his be- 
loved son at colloge. Here this son became dissi- 
pated, but after he had graduated and returned 
to his father, the influence of home, acting upon 
a generous nature, actually reformed him. The 
father was overjoyed at the prospect that his 
cherished hopes of other days we]% to be real- 
ized. Several years passed, w^hen the young 
man, having completed his professional studies, 
and being about to leave his father to establish 
himself in business, was invited to dine with a 
neighboring clergyman distinguished for his hos- 
pitality and social qualities. At this dinner 
wine was introduced and offered to the young 
man, who refused, pressed upon him and again 
firmly refused. This was repeated and the 
young man was ridiculed for his singular ab- 
stinence. He was strong enough to overcome 
appetite, but he could not resist ridicule. He 
drank and fell, and from that moment became a 



AS bEEN BY LADIES. 33 

conlirmed drunkard, and long since has found a 
drunkard's grave. 

'*Mr. Moderator," continued the old man, ^'I 
am that father, and it was at the table of the 
clergyman who has just taken his seat that this 
token of hospitality ruined the son. I shall 
never cease to mourn.'' What killed that young 
man? Cowardice. He could not say no in the 
presence of and to his pastor. 

RIDICULE. 

Of the pastor's attitude we speak elsewhere. 
There are many who fall into the habit of drink- 
ing, not because they like it, or have any excuse 
to offer for indulging in it, but they are invited 
by friends who have shown them attention and 
been helpful to them in many ways, and these 
friends are respected in the community. They 
ask a young man in the presence of a table full 
of friends, and the young man hates to deny lest 
his friends feel insulted. What shall he do? He 
is sure to be branded. 

It is cowardly in either case, by one party for 
not having stamina enough to take wine and stop 
at that, and on the other hand for not having 



34 YOUNG MEN 



courage enough to stand by his convictions and 
not take it. 

AFRAID OF CRITICISM. 

Again there are those who refuse to identify 
themselves with a good cause and be outspoken 
in denouncing sin and advocating right, not be- 
cause they do not believe in the cause and com- 
mend others for their course, but they fear the 
sneers, taunts and comments of their associates. 

BOY IN BARRACKS. 

During the winter of 1863 in the barracks at 
Washington, a Cliristian boy had knelt down to 
pray before getting into his berth. The boys 
threw the bootjack and boots at him; he took his 
grievance to the chaplain, who said to him: '*! 
would not kneel down at my berth; I would get 
into it and pray quietly." But said the 
young man: "That would be cowardly." The 
chaplain told of his adviee to the boy and of 
course the soldiers watched him on the following 
night to see what he would do, and he not only 
knelt down and prayed, but prayed vocally. 

The result was the chaplain lost his influence 
and every man in that barracks was converted 



AS SEEN BY LADIES. 35 

during the winter, and the young boy had the 
privilege of holding meetings night after night. 

NOT FANATIC. 

It is possible to be religious and not be fanatic 
Self-confident and not conceited, courteous and 
gentle and not weak and eflEeininate, refined and 
not affected, courageous and not daresome, which 
we will try to show in some future lecture. Never 
be afraid to stand alone nor apologize for stand- 
ing thus; stand by your principles; they will 
carry you over the deepest and darkest chasms 
ever known to mortal. Throw yourself enthusi- 
astically into the army of the true, pure and 
holy. Never wait to see what anybody else is 
going to do, for he who is boldly true can be 
truly bold. Copy the qualities of the masters if 
you would become a master. 

A painter having stood a long time before a 
picture that attracted much attention and called 
forth many comments, said with bowed head: 
''God forgive me for not having done better." 
So I would present the faults of young men and 
the opportunities and helps to overcome and cor- 
rect, that in the twilight . of heavenly dawning. 



36 YOUNG MEN 



when God puts out the glorious lamps of im- 
mortal burning, there shall be no regrets or tears 
of sorrow. 

**Life is volume from youth to old age, 
Each year is a chapter, each day is a page. 
Let none be more noble, more manly and true 
Than the little volume written by you. 

Fear not to build thine area in the heights, 

Where golden splendors lie, 
And thrust thyself into thy inmost soul 

In simple faith away, 
And God will make divinely real 
The highest form of thy ideal.'* 



SECOND ADDRESS. 



Voang liadies as Seen by 
Gentlemen. 



'%km$t Cftott me from Secret faults/; 



O fairest of creation, last and best 
Of all God's work, creature in whom excelled 
Whatever can to sight or thought be formed, 
Holy, div^ine, good, amiable, or sweet! 

— Milton. 

Honored be woman! she beams on the sight 
Graceful and fair, like a being of light ; 
Scatters around her, wherever she strays, 
Roses of bliss, o'er our thorn-covered ways; 
Roses of Paradise, sent from above. 
To be gathered and twined in a garland of love. 
— From the German of Schiller. 



YOUNG LADIES AS SEEN BY 
GENTLEMEN. 



The petition of the Psalmist as recorded 
in the 19th chapter and 12th verse is without 
doubt the prayer of every true-hearted girl. 
She may not make it known by word or act, 
but down in the depths of her heart lies a 
longing to become "a perfect woman, nobly 
planned." But too often the prayer dies 
with the longing. The young girl has not 
the courage to look herself squarely in the 
face, and find out what her faults are. 
Doting parents and fond friends shrink from 
the unpleasant duty, and allow enemies to 
discover and use them. Believing that if 
young girls could see their faults as others 
see them, they would seek to correct them, 
we present this chapter hoping that it may 
be used as a mirror before the eye of the 
earnest young lady who seeks perfection in 
life and character. 



40 YOUNG LADIES 

But who can all the errors tell, 

Or count the thoughts by which they fell? 

Omnicient God to Thee alone 

Our sins infinity is known. 

Do Thou my sercret faults efface, 

And show forth all Thy cleansing grace. 

But the gentlemen to whom letters were 
sent, asking them to indicate what they con- 
sidered the chief faults of the young ladies 
of this day, all said : ' ' It is not an easy 
matter to speak of faults or seeming blem 
ishes where there is .so much that is beauti- 
ful and praiseworthy.' ' 

SPOTS ON THE SUN. 

Nevertheless there are some faults which 
appear like black spots in the disk of the 
sun . First the gentlemen all agree that the 
failure to discern between fading and trans- 
ient and fadeless and immortal beauty is the 
chief weakness or fault of our American 
girls. This may seem a little severe at first, 
but how many act as though they believed 
and realized that a trained mind cultured 
spirit and courageous heart was the highest 
and best type of beauty. The desire to be 
attractive and beautiful is always commend- 



AS SEEN BY GENTLEMEN. 41 

able. The devotion of energy, the conse- 
cration of time, and the expenditure of 
money for those things that develop strength, 
enlarge and quicken thought, refine and 
beautify the spirit, should always be en- 
couraged. The most classical mind may be 
profitably employed in the field of dress, 
selecting and arranging colors so as to avoid 
flashy, showy vulgarisms, and to cultivate 
and refine tastes. The young lady has not 
failed if in her collegiate course she has 
learned to appear easy and well dressed in 
calico or muslin. 

THEORIES. 

A great many false theories have been dis- 
seminated by very good people, because 
Jesus once said to his disciples: ^'There- 
fore I say unto you, take no thought for your 
life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink ; 
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put 
on. 

' ' Is not the life more than meat, and the 
body more than raiment ? 

''Behold the fowls of the air, for they so\t 
not neither do they reap, nor gather into 



42 YOUNG LADIES 

barns ; yet your heavenly Father f eedeth 
them. Are ye not much better than they ? 

' ' Which of you by taking thought can add 
one cubit unto his stature ? 

' ' And why take ye thought for raiment ? 
Consider the lilies of the field, how they 
grow, they toil not neither do they spin. 
And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon 
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of 
these." 

This means that we are to do as the birds 
do, using our faculties as they do theirs, 
and then trust the Father without anxiety 
or worry. Not that we are to drift 
thoughtlessly through space in utter neglect 
of those things that make for one's highest 
good. Jesus always presented the Gospel 
as a system of benefits, covering the needs 
of man's triune nature; a coronation for 
all days and all needs, rather than a chime 
of bells for Sunday and the trained musi- 
cians. Avoid anxiety — not interest. 

DRESS. 

Jesus, in all his ministry, never said a 



AS SEEN BY GENTLEMEN. 43 

word against people spending time and 
money in view of making themselves look 
comely, symmetrical and beautiful, nor lias 
any of his inspired followers. He did teach 
us to put away that inordinate desire for 
something new, that leads to the despising 
of fashions, hideous and uncomfortable and 
compels attendants to walk on another 
street, and houses to be rebuilt so that 
sleeves may go through and hats stand up 
unbent, for the cherishing of such tastes 
means robbery. Such minds are almost sure 
to rattle and such spirits go unclothed, 
chilled and dwarfed through God's store 
house taxing the pity of men and angels. 
We do not plead for less real attention, but 
that it be better distributed, and not all ex- 
hausted on the house, lest the inmates suffer. 
Our American young ladies have an individ- 
uality that never aj)pears at its best in for- 
eign costumes. They have a distinctive 
beauty in their personality. There is no rea 
son why they should not have and maintain 
their own styles. The ladies of this country 



44 YOUNG LADIES 

spend more money for dress than any other 
nation on earth. A leading importer makes 
the following statement, and then submits 
some very pertinent questions. '' My part- 
ner and I were trying to figure it up the 
other day, and taking our firm for a basis 
and comparing the approximate expendi- 
tures of other concerns all over the country 
with it, and then including the money paid 
out from private purses by travelers who 
buy their clothes there every year, we calcu- 
lated that the figures would easily run to a 
hundred million and that is an inside esti- 
mate. Now, why should not America have 
this trade for her own ? We virtually furn- 
ish the money that supports the modistes of 
Paris and the fabric makers of France. Why 
could we not turn that money homeward and 
concentrate that business and those indus- 
tries here ? We would be from one to two 
hundred million dollars gainer by it every 
year. Those people over there charge us 
fabulous prices for the articles we buy — the 
jobbers virtually practicing the methods of 



AS SEEN BY GENTLEMEN. 45 

extortion. We could retail them for the 
same and even lower prices here without in- 
terfering with our liberal rates of wages. 
This question is of the utmost commercial 
importance to this country. 

AMERICANS. 

''The fact is, as statisticians show, Ameri- 
cans are dressing better and better every 
year. That means they are paying more at- 
tention to and spending more money for 
dress. And they will continue to do this 
more and more as they advance. 

" It is estimated now that almost as much 
money is spent for dress as for food in Amer- 
ica. Consider what that means. Almost 
half the income for the country spent on 
clothes. Then why should we not have 
clothes of our own ? Why should we not 
get some definite decided return for this ex- 
penditure ? Is there any material reason 
why we should not ?" 

This same author further says, and I 
quote him verbatim because his experience 
is so fully endorsed by my own reading and 



46 YOUNG LADIES 

observation. ''Parisian ideas are not suit- 
able for Americans. I speak out of my 
actual experience of thirty -five years. For 
that length of time I have been superintend- 
ing the making of dresses for the fashion- 
able American public, and have crossed the 
ocean twice a year regularly to secure ideas 
and styles and fabrics to help me in my work. 
And just now I am prepared to say that I 
am disgusted with the situation. The move- 
ment suggested by the modiste conservation 
is what is needed and what is wanted, and I 
think the time for it is about here. Why, 
what do we gain by going to Paris, and 
buying of Paris so regularly ? Ideas ? Yes, 
but what kind of ideas? Parisian ideas — 
artistic ideas in a manner, but artistic ideas 
all and altogether emanating from and di- 
rected to the advancement of the Parisian 
women. Why cannot we stay here at home 
and have ideas of our own ? Haven' t we 
enough to inspire us? Isn't the fresh 
beauty of our women enough — the pure 
beauty of America's daughters? It ought 
to be. It is true the Parisian atmosphere is 



AS SEEN BY GENTLEMEN. 47 

better adapted to such things as styles, etc., 
in many ways, but I don't see why, if we 
should try, we couldn't create something of 
an atmosphere here. The truth is that the 
styles we get from Paris, although artistic, 
are not at all suited to us. Almost every im- 
ported dress that I get has to be altered, and 
altered most materially, before it is fit for 
the American woman for whom it is intended. 
That is the fact. So that when the dress is 
worn, it is not really a Parisian creation, 
but an American one. The Parisian styles 
and shades are not adapted to American 
women. We have to alter and moderate 
them all. Then why should not our American 
modistes have the honor of making the 
dress in the tirst place ? Why should we 
virtually have to make new costumes out of 
the imported, and then let all the honor of 
it go to Paris ? Whenever a Parisian de- 
signer wishes something new in the way of 
styles he goes to these places, and then all 
along on the walls he has suggestions in- 
numerable, color, shape, design, effect, cos- 



48 YOUNG LADIES 

tumes and fabrics for hundred of years 
back. 

NEW. 

''These he works over into something new, 
or perhaps is inspired by them to create 
something new." But is it essential that 
there be something new in order that it be 
commendable ? Is the new always most to 
be desired ? Are there not some characters 
that appear best when the robes are so famil- 
iar as not to be thought of ? Did you stop 
to see or think of the evening dress worn by 
the Queen of the Night this evening ? No, 
she has on the same silvery white raiment, 
given at the hand of the sun. She moves 
through and across the firmament, dressed 
in the same beauty and majesty of old. Her 
pathway glitters with diamonds, and yet 
their brilliancy never detracts from the 
queenly form and beauty of the moon. 
She will never wear any other suit until her 
work is done. No one will think of retrim- 
ming or remodeling her robes. 

PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS. 

So there are peculiar characters that 



AS SEEN BY GENTLEMEN. 49 

always appear best in robes that do not 
attract attention, are so perfectly applicable 
to the individuality and beauty of the 
wearer, as to intensify her grace and defy 
the observer to give any reason for it. Let 
every spirit therefore be robed with that 
righteousness which is embroidered by the 
fingers of the spirit. Then shall their 
beauty be recognized, and they find a place 
at the wedding of the lamb on the sea of 
glass, before the eternal throne. Let every 
dressing room have two mirrors, one for the 
body and the other for the spirit. 

LIFE'S REAL CLAIMS. 

The next fault mentioned by the gentle- 
men, may be presented as a lack of that 
earnest though tfulness which discerns life's 
real claims, without which life is a play, 
disturbed by the events and phenomena 
which are to come. Thoughtfulness will 
always seek to spend the present, in view of 
being prepared for the future. The parent 
or guardian is not only derelict, but cruel, if 



'l^^^^f^, 



50 YOUNG LADIES 

he snffer a girl to go out into this world un- 
skilled and unequipped for all claims and 
emergencies. 

DELICATE. 

There are many pleasures and conditions 
of toil now tolerated in society, and adopted 
by the Shylocks of commerce that leave the 
young lady at twenty too delicate for any 
use in this world. There are hundreds who 
have spent their time in the frivolous, trans- 
itory amusement of passing hours, infatu- 
ated, thoughtlessly, with the attentions of a 
young man who lives out of his father's in- 
come or who is s ending a legacy, regardless 
of any claim on him for the future, until the 
hour for preparation for life is past. 

MIND. 

Others who have given their whole time to 
the culttiring of the mind in view of becom- 
ing fascinating, attractive and entertaining, 
are now facing responsibilities and interests 
which they have no power to meet or dis- 
charge. Hard times and financial depress- 
ions bring these weaknesses and faults to 



AS SEEN BY GENTLEMEN. 51 

light. Misfortunes have overtaken their 
guaidians, swept away their fortunes, dis- 
ease and death have rendered it impossible 
for them to make another, and these delicate 
ladies find themselves with no ability to do 
anything. There are hundreds of whom I 
now speak that, unless they can be assured 
beyond possible loss of a livelihocd, are of 
all women most miserable. 

READING. 

There may be found in every city on this 
hemisphere those who have employed the 
best years of life in trashy reading, shed- 
ding tears and heaving sighs over a novelist's 
creation, while God' s creatures are dying all 
around for want of a word of sympathy ; 
seeking to excite their sensibilities and fire 
their imaginations by making novels and 
poetry the stai)les of their reading eschew- 
ing and counting worthless, history, science, 
philosophy or at least assigning them to the 
department of Theology. What is the re- 
sult ? Feeble intellects, weak memories, ex- 
travagant imaginations, benumbed sensibili- 
ties, and unsettled habits. A troop of evils 



52 YOUNG LADIES 

more to be dreaded than the coming of an 
invading army, for the soldiers kill the body, 
but these evils kill the mind. Reading 
should be creative of thought, invigorating 
the intellect, and stimulating the faculties. 
Let every paragraph read be followed with 
a moment of serious thought, such as will 
apply the thought to some practical purpose, 
and you will surely become a trained 
thinker and have something to think about, 
for your thought will always be in keeping 
with the matter treasured. The little ser- 
pent soon becomes the Anaconda that de- 
stroys conscience and ruins character. How 
important it is then that we select such 
thoughts as will strengthen the mind and 
adorn the character. 

GOSSIPS. 

Shallow thinkers are sure to spend their 
energies in idle gossip, and in criticising 
people who are absent, yes worse than that, 
such persons would receive with warmest 
professions of friendship and oft-times with 
a fervent kiss those whom they criticise in 
in their absence. Allow me then to plead 



AS SEEN BY GENTLMEN. 53 

for a moment for sincerity in speech Learn 
to talk about things, not people. How cruel 
it is to speak slightingly of a person whom 
you have entertained so pleasantly, and to 
whom you have made such professions of 
friendship, the minute the door is closed and 
he is gone. 

FRIVOLOUS. 

Better be dumb than use the gift of speech 
in idle words, uncertainties and false preten- 
tions. A stupid girl who cannot talk at all 
is more to be respected than a chattering 
miss who can talk of nothing good or useful. 
I would rather not say these things were it 
not for the fact that the most frivolous may, 
by application and high ideals, become earn- 
est, thoughtful, sincere and grand. 

Some unknown writer has embodied all of 
this in the following : 

" Her eyes were bright and merry, 

She danced in the mazy whirl, 
She took the world in its sunshine, 

For she was a frivolous girl. 
She dressed like a royal princess; 

She wore her hair in a curl: 
The gossips said: 'What a pity 

That she's such a frivolous girl.' '' 



•54 YOUNG LADIES 

She is a Avife, a mother, a woman; 

Grand, noble, and pure as a pearl; 
While the gossips sajs: 'Would jou think it 

Of only a frivolous girl?'" 

EXPERIENCE. 

Thirdly. The third fault spoken of by 
the gentlemen is very serious and very far 
from anything I can personally say, but nev- 
ertheless it may be true of young ladies of 
vrhom I know nothing. 

I state the fault in the language of the 
gentleman consulted: ''A failure to appre- 
ciate lessons of experience." Holding this 
in the light of every day life, are we sure 
that the young ladies do not set aside the ad- 
vice of father and mother when it does not 
harmonize with some whim or fancy of their 
own? Do they not grieve the heart of the 
aged mother by spending hours with callers, 
delving in trashy literature, rather than lift- 
ing the burdens that fall on those who have 
made it possible for them to have leisure 
hours and places to entertain callers, forget- 
ting or failing to appreciate the fact that 
these counsels and warnings are given by 



AS SEEN BY GENTEMEN. 55 

those who have had experiences which they 
have never had. 

MOTHERS. 

Not many days ago a gentleman stood by 
the grave of a young lady whom he had 
known for a dozen years. She was educated 
in one of the best colleges of the land and re- 
turned to her home an elegant lady, with 
trained powers. She did not sit down in her 
elegance to think of her mother as old fash- 
ioned and out of date, but entered at once 
with all her training into every day life with 
a purpose to lift every burden from the 
shoulders of the loving patient mother, who 
had toiled for her so long and thereby made 
it possible for her daughter to receive a 
scholastic training. As the clergyman stood 
beside the grave, the mother said, "G-ertrude 
lifted, one by one, every burden from my 
life, until at last her hand carried all the 
household care and responsibility. She not 
only remembered but magnified the little 
self-denials practiced by me in order that 
she might receive a college education; she 
rejoiced in doing those things which made 



56 YOUNG LADIES 

home attractive and pleasant during all these 
years." I have recalled this statement, writ- 
ten in a letter by the clergyman hoping to 
inspire in every heart a spirit of noble help- 
fulness toward the tired mother. 

WOMx\N'S BEST JEWEL. 

Should any look into this mirror, and see 
that this fault has been thoughtlessly re- 
tained, I hope they will put it away at once 
and forever. If these blemishes are recog- 
nized and proper effort is made, they may 
be overcome, and every life become what it 
ought to be, — bright and joyous, happy and 
useful, earnest and devotional, wherein rev- 
erence for the good, love for the beautiful, 
will preserve that name which is woman's 
best jewel, and God's best gift. 

I think I have cited faults enough for one 
discourse. 

NOT MINE. 

Though you may say the minister has not 
mentioned a fault I have, and those he has 
mentioned are so familiar and commonplace 
as to be passed by as trivial, and not worthy of 



^- --'^ 



AS SEEN BY GENTLMEN, 57 

a moments reflection, friend remember, it is 
the little blemishes that destroy the beauty 
of life. 

" It is the little rift within the lute 

That bye and bje will make the music mute 

And ever widening, slowly silence all, 
The little rift within the lovers lute; 

Or little pitted speck in garnered fruit." 

The greatest discovery of the 19th century 
is woman, as she really is. God is giving into 
her hands interests, so far reaching as to 
cause every true heart to beat with a quicker 
life. You must be impressed with the im- 
portance of her work, for each day brings 
out more clearly the fact that we are living 
in the 

DAYS 

Seen by the prophet Joel, when he said 
''I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and 
your daughters shaU prophecy, and on my 
servants and on my handmaidens I will pour 
out my spirit, and they shall prophecy." 
Hasten with song into the courts of light: 

''For drops of grief can never pay 

The debt of love I owe, 
Here Lord 1 give myself away 

'Tis all I can do." 



58 YOUNG LADIES 

KING'S DAUGHTERS. 

Sucli a consecration will enable yon to an- 
swer the prayer of the king's danghters: 
''Take me Lord and use me to-day as thon 
wilt; whatever work thou hast for me to do, 
give to me in my hands; if there are those, 
thou wouldst have me to help in any way, 
send them to me; take my time and use it 
as thou wilt. Let me be a vessel close to thy 
hand and meet for thy service, to be employ- 
ed only for thee and for ministry to others 
in Thy name." May the Friend of all Friends 
show you the way and give you strength for 
every duty, that you may grow in grace and 
beauty until you come with gladness and re- 
joicing to enter the King's palace. I cannot 
tell you how my heart yearns for the young 
people whom I have had the honor and pleas- 
ure to address. I long and pray that they 
may be cleansed from all secret faults, '' pol- 
ished after the similitude of a palace, clothed 
jn garments of wrought gold " and that beau- 
ty which is approved of God. 

"A perfect woman, nobly planned 
To warm, to comfort and command." 



THIRD ADDRESS. 



Weaknesses and paults o? the 

flnperican Pulpit as Judged 

bg llagnpeip. 



T ptmuA 4$ nmt mt to prmh dgain, 
BU a$ a ayitid man to dying men. 

"Buxter. 

So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman 
unto the house ©f Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the 
word at my mouth, and warn them fiom me. When I 
saj unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely 
die ; if thou dost not bpea.k to warn the wicked from his 
way, that wicked man shall die in his inquity; but his 
blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou 
Avarn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not 
turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou 
hast delivered thy soul. Therefore, O thou son of man, 
speak unto the house of Israel; thus ye speak, saying, if 
our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine 
away in them, how should we then live? Say unto 
them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure 
in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn 
from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your 
evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel ? — 
EzEK. 33-7-12. 

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though 
God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's 
stead, be ye reconciled to God. — Paul, 2nd Cor. 5th-2o. 

How beautiful it is for men to die 
Upon the w^alls of Zion! to be called 
Like a watchman and weary sentinel. 
To put his armor off, and rest in heaven! 

— Willis. 



1^^- 



CLERGYMEN AS SEEN BY 
LAYMEN. 



The extent and power of clergymen in this 
repnblic is not to be easily measured. Lay- 
ing aside all that is generally called religious 
and thinking of the ministers as a company 
of men having the privilege of speaking 
their convictions in 90, 000 pulpits once, twice 
and three times a week before 18,000,000 
sober, candid and thoughtful men and 
women, is a matter of no little moment. The 
wonder is that so many people attend church 
from week to w^eek to listen to the feeble 
productions of men, but there is the fact. 
They come from out the land pressed in 
spirit, saddened in heart, tired in body, and 
listen to the story of life and pay for the 
privilege of attending these meetings some- 
times more than they pay for the supply of 
table or library. 

Thinking one day of this subject, as a 
l^rivilege granted men in the ministry of the 



62 CLERGYMEN 



gospel of Jesus, I sat down and wrote many 
of the leading laymen of different denomin- 
ations, asking them two questions: 

First — Do you think the clergy in this 
country are measuring up to their high 
privilege ? 

Second — What are some of the weaknesses 
and faults of the ministry from your stand- 
point ? 

The charity and frankness of these busy 
men was very marked. Out of that corre- 
spondence this chapter has grown. The first 
failure as judged by most of the laymen was 
a failure to appreciate the resj)onsibility as- 
sociated with or growing out of the ministry. 
This is frank, and doubtless true, for a sense 
of responsibility must always remain a mat- 
ter of growth, and who, among the foremost 
men in the pulpit to-day, has sufficient 
knowledge of the capabilities, possibilities 
and liabilities of spirits clad with uncon- 
ditioned immortality to sense the responsi- 
bility of his relation to them. 

To make it more emphatically true, who 
' that ministers in any capacity appreciates 



AS SEEN BY LAYMEN. 63 

the responsibility of their] position ? Can 
that teacher whose iDiivilege it is to give di- 
rection in the use of the brain appreciate the 
importance of first movements ? Can he real- 
ize the advantage coming to that mind in later 
years if correctness and care be exercised 
in the selection of principles registered, rules 
employed in formulating and enunciating 
its desires, purposes and plans ? No, brains 
are to be trained, refined and cultured, not 
as the center of life, but as an instrument or 
organ in the hands of the Coming King back 
of all organs. 

Can the cook in our American kitchen to- 
day appreciate the importance of his or her 
relation to the success of the inmates of the 
home? Xo king can rule well, minister 
think clearly, teacher ex]?ress himself logic- 
ally, or artisan work skillfully unless they 
be well fed and properly nourished. One of 
the most desirable places in the world may 
be found in the American kitchens in this 
day of intensity and rush. Electricity is in 
the atmosphere. Domesticity is an un- 
known element in our large cities. What 



64 CLERGYMEN 



an opportunity for an angel who seeks to be 
most helpful to prepare and set before the 
nervous, intense family food so inviting, 
palatable, nourishing, as to inspire, sustain 
and render comfortable every member of the 
household during their hours in school, office 
or run. Ah ! but when the cook and the 
teacher fail, investigation is made and sup- 
plies or apparatus is furnished with which 
to render the service more effectual. But 
too often in the rush of life the minister of 
the gospel of Jesus is left half buried with 
criticism and gossip to fight his way out, 
single-handed. 

" Fail to appreciate." Fail to measure up 
to what they know is demanded or expected 
would better express the condition of many 
who are silent in the presence of dying men. 
Follow the men in prominent pulpits to-day 
through the chambers of indifference, doubt, 
darkness, chill, despair and death. Listen 
to the sigh that comes up from homeless, 
friendless, faithless, pessimistic spirits, once 
in better circles, and then tell your friend 
and pastor how to answer the question: 



AS SEEN BY LAYMEN. 65 

''Who will show US good?'' Don't leave 
him before a chasm in indifference until 
your want of interest makes it bridgeless, 
and he cries in the language of Joseph Hart : 

'' Oh, for a glance of heavenly day, 
To take this stubborn heart away. 
And thaw, with beams of love divine, 
This heart, this frozen heart of mine! 

''The rocks can rend; the earth can quake; 
The seas can roar; the mountains shake: 
Of feeling, all things show some sign, 
But this unfeeling heart of mine. 

**To hear the sorrows thou has felt, 
O Lord, an adamant, would melt: 
But I can read each moving line. 
And nothing nn. ves this heart of mine, 

"Thy judgments, too, w^hich devils fear — 
Amazing thought! — unmoved I hear; 
Goodness and wrath in vain combine 
To stir this stupid heart of mine. 

"But power divine can do the deed; 

And, Lord that power I greatly need: 

Thy spirit can from dross refine, 

And melt and change this heart of mine." ' 

''The second fault, or Aveakness, of the 
ministry" is in failing to estimate the intel- 
lectual condition of the audience. This, 



-- T^^^ 



■-"^*>1 



66 CLERGYMEN 



doubtless, is true. But it is many edged. 
First, this is not the thinking age; men and 
women are too busy to think; but it is the 
reading age. Books, periodicals and papers 
covering all fields are, by the use of elec- 
tricity and our system of advertisemnnt, 
brought within the reach of all our people. 
It is no longer incumbent on the village par- 
son to direct the political interests of his 
people. Once they looked to him for in- 
struction on this line; not so to-day. 

While the preacher should be intelligent 
and free to speak on all questions that have 
to do with civil and social interests in Church 
and State, he need not stand as political di- 
rector, social entertainer or scientific instruc- 
tor. We live in an age that supj)lies the 
best and latest thoughts and comments from 
the best minds on both hemispheres, morning 
and evening, for the sum of one or two cents 
per day on all political questions and they are 
equal in authority to the pulpit. The preach- 
er who undertakes to run on the line of en- 
tertainment, seeking constantly something 
new and novel, will fail, because the stage 



AS SEEN BY LAYMEN. 67 

meets that demand more perfectly than it is 
possible for him to. The pulpit that seeks 
to settle all questions, explain all scientific 
declarations, or overthrow all enemies, must 
fail, for the literary achievements of this day 
make it impossible for any one man to be 
authority on all questions. For the small 
sum of twenty-five cents you can buy the 
latest treatise on any phase of science from 
the pen of a man who has given his whole 
life to that peculiar phase of science, and is 
therefore the peer of any man in the pulpit 
(on that subject). But there is a work pecu- 
liar to the pulpit untouched by any other 
agency; the lyceum, press, Sunday-school, 
prayer meeting, Ep worth League, or class 
meeting cannot take the place of the pulpit 
in sowing the seed of life, for God hath or- 
dained that men shall be reached by the ap- 
peal of the Holy Spirit in the use of the hu- 
man voice to the consciousness of men in 
view of repentance and faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ as the Son of Grod. As long as 
there is an unsaved soul and a merciful God, 
men will be called to preach the unsearchable 



68 CLERGYMEN 



riches of grace -with the Holy Spirit sent 
down from heaven. It is the unwritten and 
unwritable gospel that moves the world along 
these lines today as of old. 

This law must always remain. Civilization 
may modify methods, as it has in other 
fields. We have^ distanced the old-time 
method of seed sowing, but the seed is still 
sown by human instrumentalities. It must 
be brought within the reach of external 
forces or the blade, stalk and ear will never 
appear. Civilization may effect the methods 
and change the means employed by the 
heralds of truth, but it can never do away 
with the minister and the seed. 

But this should in no sense excuse the 
minister from selecting his thought and em- 
ploying such illustrations as will carry the 
message of life to the heart of his listener. 
Jesus, in selecting the preachers of old, called 
them from among the people, men who knew 
the thoughts and methods of thinking, pro- 
cess of reasoning and source of information of 
the people to whom they were sent. If min- 
isters were careful to keep up that relation 



AS SEEN BY LAYMEN, 69 

to their auditors more would be helped and 
less hurt l)}^ their utterances. 

Again, in the parable of the sower we have 
another illustration that may help to a bet- 
ter appreciation of the auditors' mental con- 
dition. Among other hearers he suggests 
the one whose brain is so beaten with the 
tread of anxious thought as to be incapable 
of receiving a thoughtful message quietly 
delivered, demanding pungent, sharp, in- 
cisive utterances that are sent home with the 
sledge hammer of conviction. The same in- 
capacity is sometimes produced by another 
l^rocess. Indifference often leaves a mind 
inactive until it becomes incapacitated. 
Going over the Green mountains, one bitter 
cold day, the car became very cold. I ap- 
proached the porter, who was fussing with 
the stove beside which lay a large amount of 
rock maple wood, and said: ''Why don't you 
keep this car warm?'' Said he: "Mister, ye 
see that ere stove haint been doing any- 
thing all summer, and that ere wood is hav- 
ing a mighty hard time to 'spress itself 
through the old stove.'' His philosophy si- 



^^'"^If: 



70 CLERGYMEN 



lenced me. There are hundreds and thou- 
sands on whom the ministers look as gradu- 
ates, who resolved on leaving school, as he 
did, to keep up their study; but who, amid 
the new claims and responsibilities, have 
abandoned all works, save those bearing di- 
rectly on their immediate claims, and are 
unable to follow the recital or reading of a 
systematic paj)er on evolutionary principles, 
archeological discoveries or socialogical 
ethics. 

Thej^ have come up from fields of toil, 
chambers of affliction, conditions of temp- 
tation, with condemnation and sorrow, to 
hear about the Man of Sorrow, by whose 
stripes men are healed, who went about doing 
good and now offers pardon to all repentant 
hearts, men want to hear of him who stands 
alone in the corridors of death shouting ' 'I 
am the resurrection and the life whosoever 
liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 

Again, more ministers under^estimate the 
ability of their auditors than over estimate 
them. This is the dispensation of the spirit; 
who leadeth into all truth. One of our mis- 



m' 



AS SEEN BY LAYMEN. 71 

sionaries in a foreign field relates the follow- 
ing incident. ''Sitting on the veranda of 
my home in Bnrmah, a jungle boy came 
through the opening in the hedge which 
served as a gateway, and approaching her, 
inquired, with eagerness: 

''Does Jesus Christ live here?" 

He was a boy about twelve years of age, 
his hair matted with filth and bristling in 
every direction, like the quills of a porcupine 
and a dirty cloth of cotton was wrapped in a 
most slovenly manner about his person. 

"Does Jesus Christ live here?" he asked, 
as he hastened up the steps of the veranda. 

"What do you want with Jesus Christ?'' 
asked the lady. 

"I want to see him and confess to him." 

"Why what have you been doing that you 
want to confess?" 

"Doing^? Why, I tell lies, I steal, I do 
everything bad. I am afraid of going to hell 
and I want to see Jesus Christ, for I heard 
one of the Loogyees (missionaries) say that 
he can save us from hell. Does he live here? 
Tell me where I can find him." 



73 CLERGYMEN 



''But he does not save people from hell if 
they continue to do wickedly.'' 

''I want to stop doing wickedly," said the 
boy, ''but I can't; I don't know how to stop. 
The evil thoughts are in me, and the bad 
deeds come of evil thoughts. What can I 
do?" 

' 'Nothing but come to Christ, poor boy, 
like all the rest of us," the lady softly re- 
plied; but she spoke this last in English, so 
the boy only raised his head with a vacant 
look. 

''You cannot see Jesus Christ now," she 
added, and was answered by a sharp, quick 
cry of disappointment. ' 'But I am his friend 
and follower," said the lady, at which the 
face of the little listener brightened, and she 
continued, '^He has told me in his Word to 
teach all those who wish to escape from hell 
how to do so." 

The joyful eagerness depicted in the boy's 
countenance was beyond description. Tell 
me, oh, tell me? Only ask your Master to 
save me, and I will be your servant for life. 
Do not be angry, t want to be saved ! " 



AS SEEN BY LAYMEN. 73 

The next day the little boy was introduced 
to the little bamboo school house in the char- 
acter of " the wild Karen boy," and such a 
greedy seeker after truth and holiness had 
been seldom seen. Every day he came to 
the white teachers to learn something more 
concerning the Lord Jesus and the way of 
salvation; and every day his eagerness in- 
creased, and his face gradually lost its inde- 
scribable look of stupidity. He was at 
length baptised, and commemorated the love 
of that Savior he had so earnestly sought. 
He lived awhile to testify his sincerity, and 
then died in joyful hope. The lady has also 
since died, and she and the wild Karen boy 
have met in the presence of their common 
Redeemer.-' 

Despair not, fellow toiler ! The spirit 
is poured out as never before. We are not 
here to build cathedrals and churches, hos- 
pitals and schools, herald scientific findings 
and artistic achievements, to read essays and 
w^ear crucifixes alone. Nay. It is ours to 
instruct the intellect, stir the sensibilities 
and persuade the will, by the use of all 



74 CLERGYMEN 

means, enforced by an energy born of the 
spirit of God. 

The third weakness or fault was a failure 
to rest confidently in the supernatural aid 
promised: '' Lo, I am with you always, even 
unto the end of the world;" ''all power in 
heaven and on earth is given unto me.'' To 
what extent, if any, this criticism may be 
true, I cannot say, but fear men are apt, 
perhaps unconsciously, to rely too much on 
the helps of men and to little on the super- 
natural energy of the word and spirit of God. 
As ambassadors, standing in Christ's stead, 
men should never, for one moment, loose 
sight of the fact that they stand as rejjresen- 
tatives of the King, who will not allow His 
word to return unto Him void. Conscious 
of that fact, men will preach tJie AVord and 
look for results. Had you been permitted 
an interview with Moses out in Arabia, feed- 
ing, clothing and controlling Israel, he would 
have said, doubtless: ''I am sent of God. 
He is responsible for the result, and when I 
have done my best I rest." Paul said : ''I 
was called to be an apostle," ''Separated 



AS SEEN BY LAYMEN. 75 

unto the gospel of God." Such conviction 
will not allow the organizing of agencies or 
grouping of experiences to come between 
them and the conscious touch of the Holy 
One. But will not such a sense of rest rob 
the ministry of that passion for souls which 
is essential to success in winning them? 
Won't men become satisfied with the regular 
routine of labors, and look to God for re- 
sults? Won't they be content to feed the 
lambs, care for and edify the church, and 
not go looking after the lost? ISTo; not if 
they be called and sent of God. In the lan- 
guage of one of our chief pastors: " Some 
thing truly appalling must have happened 
if any man, called of God to the Christian 
ministry, enters and quits the pulpit year in 
and year out without being able to lay his 
hand upon one single man, woman or child 
brought through his agency to the knowl- 
edge of salvation in Christ." That wrong 
must be with the ministers, for the seed of 
life is God given, and the Holy Ghost is still 
with his ambassadors. No; it is a reliance 
on our past experience or knowledge of the 



76 CLERGYMEN 

condition that leads men to hesitate when or- 
dered to do that which seems contrary to all 
former movements. It was perfectly natu- 
ral for Peter, a practical fisherman and per 
fectly at home with the conditions of the 
lake, to say to a landsman and a carpenter 
from Nazareth who ordered him to launch 
forth into the deep and let down the net : 
''Why so? We have toiled all night and 
taken nothing. Why should we expect a 
draft at this untimely hour?" Certain 
things that seem forbidding in nature often 
deter men from richest harvests. We cannot 
see why or how certain things and results can 
be possible. Therefore, being unable to rely 
on the promise of the supernatural energy 
or wisdom of the commander, we hesitate, 
falter, fall, and results do not appear ; while 
faith obeys, looks, receives and rejoices in 
possession of promised results. 

I have read a story of Luther, whose faith 
once astonished men and angels, and wiiose 
words shook the German hills, falling into 
depression. He became utterly discouraged ; 
things seemed to turn against him, his friends 



f*^. • 



AS SEEN BY LAYMEN. 77 

deserted him, until there was none to cheer 
him. Entering his home he sat down to 
weep and lament over his condition; tears 
rolled down his cheeks, and he turned to 
Catherine,' his wife, who, having wrapped 
her form in black robes, was weeping most 
bitterly. As he saw her tears and black 
form he said: '• Oh, Kate, what is the mat- 
ter? Is our babe dead?" No; it is worse 
than that, husband." "Tell me the worst, 
tell me the worst!" said Luther. ''Why," 
said Catherine, "'our Heavenly Father is 
dead, and therefore his cause on earth is 
overturned." Martin Luther stood up, and 
in a moment burst into a hearty laugh. '' I 
see,'' said the great man, '* I see what a fool 
I have been. God is not dead, but I have 
acted as though he were." Would to God 
all his saints might learn the lesson taught 
Luther, for filled with the conception of the 
Infinite Father and the inexhaustible sup- 
plies at our disposal we may fly with the 
angel of the morning over mountains and 
seas, across plains and through swamps, 
amid multitudes in misery, men sitting in 



78 CLERGYMEN 

darkness and distress, hopeless and in de- 
spair, like the birds of Paradise to fill the 
earth with the sunshine and joy of eternal 
hope, for our God is clothed with might. 

"The winds obey His will; 
He speaks, and in His heavenly height 
The rolling sun stands still. 

" Rebel, ye waves, and o'er the land 

With threatening aspect roar; 
The Lord uplifts His awful hand, 

And chains you to the shore. 

" Ye winds of night, your force combine ; 

Without his high behest, 
Ye shall not, in the mountain pine, 

Disturb the sparrow's nest. 

"His voice sublime is heard afar; 

In distant peals it dies; 
He yokes the whirlwind to his car, 

And sweeps the howling skies. 

"Ye sons of earth, in reverence bend; 

Ye nations wait his word; 
And bid the choral song ascend 

To celebrate our God." 

One of the gentlemen, a very prominent 
worker in the educational and religious 
circles of Boston, wrote as his opinion: ''The 
chief fault of the American ministry is that 
they are not sufficiently practical. The 



I^t 



AS SEEN BY LAYMEN. 79 

world needs a plain, simple gospel, that con- 
tains and presents salvation in its fullness." 
This I think so timely as to venture a word 
of comment on, though he alone spoke of 
this as noticeable to the laymen. The idea 
of service is not as prominent as it has been 
in other epoch, I fear. One of the chief 
characteristics of Jesus' ministry was that of 
service. He taught the disciples to look for 
success and greatness along the line of ser- 
vice. ''Let him who would be greatest 
among you be your minister." Again re- 
wards are given and withheld according to 
service rendered. ''Inasmuch as ye did iq. 
unto one of these ye did it unto me." 
Adopting this standard, ministers cannot 
hope to save men whom they are not will- 
ing to serve, for while it may be possible in 
a certain sense to serve men without serving 
God and remain indifferent to the needs of 
men. To be practical then is to be Christ- 
like: to be so filled with His spirit as to feel 
the same passion for souls that wept over 
Jerusalem and was moved with compassion 
at the sight of a multitude of men and women 



8o CLERGYMEN 

without a shepherd. Such ministers would 
pour out their souls in the interest of their 
people. Two young men leaving the class- 
room of one of our theological seminaries 
were heard to say: ''John, I agree with 

Prof. . Every sermon ought to be a work 

of art." "Yes, William, with one word 
changed. Every sermon ought to be a work 
of the HEART." Both may be possible. The 
last must be reached before men can hope to 
reach and save their fellows. The finest 
work of art may fail to impress the inartistic, 
but the crudest production of the heart in 
which Jesus reigns, delivered with the en- 
thusiasm of love, cannot fail to move the 
most artistic. The most scientific student, 
the most profound philosopher and the most 
artistic workmen will find help in the gospel 
of Jesus when presented in its simplicity 
from an honest heart, which has no other 
desire than that of pleasing God and serving 
the people. The celebrated Dr. Parker, of 
London, once said in an address on preach- 
ing: "Looking back upon all the checkered 
way, I have to testify that the only preach- 



AS SEEN BY LAYMEN. 8i 

ing which has done me good is the preaching 
of a Savionr who bore my sins in his own 
body on the tree* and the only preaching by 
which God has enabled me to do good to 
others is the preaching in which I have held 
up my Saviour not as a sublime example, 
but as the Lamb of God that taketh away 
the sin of the world,' ' 

That is the only preaching that will fill 
heaven with joy, when God maketh up his 
jewels. It is said that on one occasion when 
the nobles invited their friends to look on 
their jewels, there was a Roman matron, 
who, because of her goodness, was allowed 
to share with the nobles in putting on ex- 
hibition her jewels. As the friends entered, 
expecting to see diamonds, rubies and pearls, 
she presented two beautiful sons, pure and 
lovely, and the nobles turned away in shame 
that they had so little to offer. So in the 
day when God maketh up His jewels, Jesus 
will turn away from the amethyst, the emer- 
ald, the onyx, the topaz, and point to the 
sons and daughters, who, having been re- 
deemed by his precious blood, are to be pre- 




82 



CLERGYMEN 



sented, without a spot or wrinkle, with ex- 
ceeding great joy. God speed the day when 
the reward shall be so clearly apprehended 
as to lead men and women to delight in his 
service. Oh, for an appropriating faith that 
steps out on God's promise; seizes the sword 
of the spirit, and in the name and power of 
God's might claims this world for the King. 




FOURTH ADDRESS. 



paults o? LlagnQen as Seen bg 
Pastors. 



Zeal ana duty are not $\m 
But are occii$lon$'$ forelock watcbful look. 

■■•milton. 

He is a faithful pastor of the poor; 
He thinks not of himself; his Master's words — 
''Feed, feed my sheep" — are ever at his heart, 
The cross of Christ is aje before his eyes." 

— Graham. 

The harvest is truly plenteous, but the laborers are 
few. — ^Jesus, Matt. 9-37. 



FAULTS OF LAYMEN AS SEEN BY 
PASTORS. 



The words of Jesus had a broader signifi- 
cance than men have seen. The reformation 
undertaken by him meant more than was re- 
portable or presentable at that age of the 
w^orld. Therefore he who thinks it possible 
to do as the first company of w^orkmen did 
and see like results, is doomed to perpetual 
disapointment. We live 

"In an age on ages telling, 
To be living is sublime." 

He who lives to hear the morning bells of 
1900 will find the thoughts of Jesus more po- 
tent than they have ever been. The great 
problems of the ages are still at hand. We 
are nearing the social crisis of this world, 
the forces of selfishness are marshalling for 
the final conflict and the contest is to be one 
of the fiercest any people ever saw. The 
monopolies and trusts of 1900 will be forced 
to contend and settle with men, not tramps, 
criminals, anarchists and shiftless creatures; 
but scholars, statesmen, philanthropists and 
Christians, who have been aroused and en 



86 FAULTS OF LAYMEN 

listed in the interests of the millions now 
pressing their way up through the conserv- 
atism of the ages; they are claiming rights 
they have never yet been granted; whether 
these claims are lawful or imaginary, they are 
in the minds of millions who mean to see them 
tested. He who stands on the broad plat- 
form of Christianity with that love for others 
that led Jesus to seek lost men, must and will 
lead the forces; every other power has been 
introduced only to fail. Every form of com- 
promise, every socialistic and philanthrophic 
theory man has introduced has failed: they 
have never secured that sense of obligation 
which is necessary to permanent reform. 
Thinking men are getting ready to try the 
principles set forth in the sermon on the 
Mount. They are coming to see that the prin- 
ciple of equity was beautifully illustrated in 
the life of Jesus, and that love for others be- 
gets interest in the welfare of those whom 
they love, such as will fill the heart of man 
with a sense of ought, the chief strength of 
which is in a realization of personal weakness 
and individual dependence. 



AS SEEN BY PASTORS. 87 

The gentlemen wlio resj)onded to my let- 
ters of inquiry along this line, said: ''The 
church is narrow in its conception of Christ' s 
mission." Men do not look on the Church 
to-day as the body of Jesus, organized, not 
only to perpetuate the deeds and defend the 
words of the Master, but to do the work He 
wants done and would do were He present 
in the flesh now. We pray: ^'Our Father 
which art in heaven hallowed be thy name, 
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth 
as it is in heaven." We mean by that, that 
the law of God is to be as perfectly obeyed 
on eartli as in heaven. 'Now if that prayer 
^s ever answered, men in position as leaders 
of thought and action, must recognize all law 
as divine, and as sacred as the decalogue 
given on the Mount. Then God's kingdom 
on earth will tax all mines, mountain-peaks, 
coast-lines, gulf-streams and living agencies. 
Too many men fail to discern the difference 
))etween the sphere and function of the 
Church. Her sphere is as wide as the earth; 
but her function is with the consciences of 
men. It is ours to educate the conscience 



'^^^ii 



88 FAULTS OF LAYMEN 

until the voice of the Church is so potent 
and responsible that all men will recognize 
her as God' s representative in the earth and 
public opinion be moulded by her influence. 
The State has the right to say 'Thou shalt." 
The church says ''Men ought." It has been 
truthfully said, ' 'The Church has no author- 
itj^ outside of her organization;" but she 
may have unbounded influence and she will 
when conception of Jesus' life is made per- 
fect, when she so changes the famous epigram, 
as to make it read: "I am a Christian and 
nothing relating to man or society is foreign 
tome" There isn't a problem to-day that 
is foreign to the interests of the Church, nor 
that she may not gain a commanding in- 
fluence over. She ought to control the lives 
of those who indicate the fashion, direct 
the commercial, social, educational and re- 
ligious interests of the future. This would 
equalize the value of service and make 
Jesus' years at the carpenter' s bench a part 
of His divine mission. The workingman 
in shop, store, pulpit and office should have 
a place with Moses on Sinai, Peter on Her 



AS SEEN BY PASTORS. 89 

mon, the angel in Getlisemene, and Christ 
on Calvary and at Bethany. His thirty 
years before the baptism were as much a 
part of the great plan as the years follow- 
ing. The whole life appearing in the Theop- 
henies, in the flesh or in the Holy Spirit was 
and is a mission to the race. It meant, and 
now means, right relations between man and 
man, men and their maker. In this we have 
the key to every problem before the world 
to-day. When men accept and believe this 
they will turn toward our altars with the 
old, old questions: ''Who will show us good?" 
''Art thou He or do we look for another?" 
The Church must grapple with and answer 
these questions now before the world or an- 
other will come. Is it of no moment that in 
Buffalo, where there are one hundred forty- 
four (144) churches there are two hundred 
eighteen (218) lodges or social compacts; New 
Orleans one hundred seventy-eight (178) 
churches, with four hundred seventy-nine 
(479) lodges; Washington with one-hundred 
eighty -one (181) churches, with three hun- 
dred and sixteen (316) lodges; St. Louis with 



->.-:T#K',yi^ 



" .-^ it:*3 



90 FAULTS OF LAYMElSf 

two hundred twenty (220) churches, there are 
seven hundred twenty-nine (729) lodges; Bos- 
ton, two hundred forty-three (243) churches, 
with five hundred ninety-nine (599) lodges; 
Brooklyn, three hundred fifty-five (355) 
churches with six hundred ninety-five (695) 
lodges, and in Chicago there are three hun- 
dred eighty-four (384) churches, and one 
thousand and eighty-eight (1,088) lodges? 

Is this state of things to pass unnoticed ? 
Where are the Zebedees represented by 
their wives and sons, in the house of God. 
Have they gone in search of a more perfect 
manifestation of the Christ-life? Are the 
followers of the Prince of Peace, laboring to 
establish Christ' s kingdom somewhere in the 
far-off world while men are sighing for help 
here? Jesus came to save men: and that 
ought to be the one work of the Church 
now. There is no other society or body on 
earth who can satisfy the needs of men. 

The Roman church is so Medieval that her 
children are swinging out into agnosticism. 
We ought not to expect men to be satisfied 
with the forms or spirit of the 17th century; 



AS SEEN BY PASTORS. 91 

we cannot go back, we must go forward and 
apply the doctrines of Holy Scripture to the 
demands of the age in which we live, or the 
people will lose confidence and look to other 
organizations for that which will supply 
their demands. The world is full of men 
and women who sigh for the touch of sym- 
pathy, for some Columbus to lead them into 
broader fields, where the spirit may find 
rest in the settlement of vexed problems, and 
be knighted a1 the hand of his creator. 

When men realize that this life is a part 
of eternity, and fitness for life is fitness for 
eternity; that all separations here and here- 
after are to be made by the law of affinity: 
that heaven could not exist as a heavenly 
place without it and hell will be as a result, 
they will gladly receive that gospel which 
puts the heart, out of which are the issues of 
life, in accord with right, that being made 
right they may dwell with the righteous. 
But, alas, too many of us are repeating the 
mistake of the early preacher, who, riding 
along a country road in Virginia, overtook 
a peddler struggling under his pack and 



92 FAULTS OF LAYMEN 

asked him to get in and ride. He did so, 
and for some time the preacher said nothing; 
presently, however, he turned his solemn 
face on the peddler and said, with awful em- 
phasis: ''My friend, are you prepared to 
die?" The peddler gave one look of terror, 
jumped from the buggy and took to the 
woods for his life. The minister hastened 
to assure him that he meant no harm, but 
the peddler refused to come back, and the 
minister rode away. 

Prepare men to live right, and the depart- 
ure will be all right, when the dying hour 
comes. Remember so long as tlie church 
fits men better for life than any other society 
can, there will be no trouble about her sup- 
port or growth; but when a society can do 
and is doing any part of the work left the 
Church better than the Church is doing it, 
then the Church wavers and struggles for 
existence. 

The desire to be entertained, rather than 
helped, means death. When the pulpit and 
pew seek entertainment, rather than helpful- 
ness, they begin to weed out the more exact- 



AS SEEN BY PASTORS. 93 

ing and nigged precepts of the text-book, 
and they begin at once to enlarge their 
creed. 

Dr. Storrs once said : ''Every thoughtful 
man, when he falls into sin, will do one of 
two things. He will repent heartily and for- 
sake tlioroughly, or he will enlarge his 
creed suflSciently to cover his sin." 

I think this criticism is just, for I believe 
that correct belief is necessary to right life; 
hence the Apostle wrote: ' 'Continue thou 
in the things which thou hast learned and 
hast been assured of.' ' ' ' All scripture, given 
by inspiration of God, is profitable for doc- 
trine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
tion in righteousness, that the man of God 
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto 
all good works." Believing is the basis of 
all instruction and education. Every teach- 
er, every preacher, every moralist and every 
parent expects human life and conduct to 
illustrate the truths believed; but there has 
grown up a popular idea, or notion, that it 
doesn't make any difference what a man 
believes so long as he is sincere. There is 



94 FAULTS OF LAYMEN 

nothing more ruinous to the Church and the 
character of men than the adoption of this 
notion. An eminent author recently asked 
that this theory be adopted by the advo- 
cates of physical economy and machinery. 
Suppose that they should decide that lead 
was equal to steel for the making of tools; 
that a triangle was just as good as a circu- 
lar wheel in machinery, or that the farmer 
should say: ''I sincerely wish to raise corn 
and, being sincere in my wish, I expect it. 
I will not plant it, but TU wait for it to 
grow." What would his sincerity avail? 
The more sincere he was the worse it would 
be for him. And how would it be if it were 
adopted in navigation? *'I have my own 
theories of astronomy. I don't believe much 
in the books and the theories they set 
forth, so I'll sail by my own theories. The 
chart says that there are three fathoms of 
water here, and here are two, and there is 
one, but I don't believe it. i know my ship 
draws sixteen feet of water, but I believe I 
can run it over a twelve foot bar. ' ' Now if he 
goes by his belief, he' 11 find himself wrecked, 



^vs;^- 



AS SEEN BY PASTORS. 95 

This principle holds good in the moral as 
in the physical, in the intellectual and the 
social relations of men. If a man believes 
that he is good enough, that there is no call 
for reformation, or for his striving to grow 
in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus 
Christ, he will be listless, heedless and in- 
attentive. But if a man believe that it is es- 
sential for him to pass the ordeal of regener- 
ation in order that he may become Christian 
or Christlike, and if his belief enables him 
to hope for endless fellowship with Deity, 
he will purify himself, even as God is pure. 

It makes all the difference in the world 
what the Church believes in reference to the 
character of God. If a man believes that 
God sits in indifference in some far-off world 
and has no direct interest in man' s present and 
eternal welfare, he will become indifferent in 
his feelings toward God, and all the spirit of 
loyalty and devotion will disappear ; but if, 
on the other hand, he believes that God can- 
not look on sin with any allowance, that he 
abhors iniquity, and that unless he turns 
from his wicked ways he will certainly bring 



96 FAULTS OF LAYMEN 

him to judgment and justice, lie may not 
seek to have his life thoroughly conformed 
to the will and pleasure of Grod, but he will 
feel that he ought to do it. This is true in 
every form of government. For instance, 
that man living in the First ward says : '' I 

voted for Judge , and helped to put 

him into power. I know him. He is sure 
to wink at my crimes. I can do as I please 
and he'll see that I'm not harmed. He is 
one of those easy, good-natured men." JNfow 
a man having that conception of the judge 
will do about as he pleases, and what the 
evil one suggests, when it is in harmony 
with his desire; but if, on being arrested, he 
finds himself before another judge who has a 
full sense of the value of justice and truth, a 
man who means to bring all evil-doers to 
justice, when that man begins to read the 
law and says: "Your conduct is herein 
condemned and you must suffer the full 
penalty of the law," he is brought under 
conviction- that is, he has another view and 
sense of sin and judgment, and when he gets 
out and returns to the First ward again, 



AS SEEN BY PASTORS. 97 

he'll ask: ''Who is on the bench?" and 
govern himself accordingly, for it makes a 
difference to him as to what he believes 
about the judge. 

Now, if you will just lift this illustration 
to the dignity and sublimity of the Judge of 
all the earth, you will find that those people 
who believe in Him as a goody sort of a be- 
ing, will boast of doing about right, or what 
they think to be about right, and leave it 
with Him. But those who believe in the 
justice of God as the Supreme Ruler of the 
universe, a being who will reward every life 
and deed according to its deserts, will strive 
to put themselves into harmony with the law 
of justice, and do those things that please 
God, that they may be right, for they know 
there is no safety in that which is not right, 
no matter how plausible the wrong may be 
made to appear; and it is when they feel 
this that they become persuasive. Paul said: 
"Knowing the terror of the law, we per- 
suade men." 

''The Congregationalist," a leading paper 
of that denomination, recently made the fol- 



'■efm 



98 FALTS OF LAYMEN 

lowing editorial statement: ''Whether the 
'doctrine of eternal punishment is preached 
or not, it may be confidentally affirmed that, 
if belief in hell disappears, belief in heaven 
will also disappear, so far as practical influ- 
ence is concerned.' ' 

Observation and inquiry will sustain this 
position, but hell will begin long before a 
man leaves this life. Sin begets hell in the 
individual heart, or society, and will con- 
tinue so long as sin is cherished. 

Again, there are those who feel that the 
great body of Christian workers has lost 
that sense of authority the Cliurch once had; 
they say that Christian workers no longer 
feel that He in whom the fullness of God 
dwelt. He who by the Holy Ghost was born 
in the flesh, dwells in man as a living inspir- 
ation with authority. There is some force 
in this criticism. Thousands have been un- 
settled by a few men who have broken away 
from traditional faith in the Christian re- 
ligion and are in a state of unrest, advancing 
theories without any sense of authority more 
than that of speculation. The result is that 



AS SEEN BY PASTORS. 99 

those who listen are unable to receive into the 
heart pulpit utterances Avitli saving faith or 
confess them without shrinking. The ex- 
tent of this is not easy to measure. It leaves 
the church without any real faith in the di- 
vine supplement or expectation of results. 

Once men had no doubt as to the truthful- 
ness and reliability of the promises found in 
the scriptures and, with a child-like expect- 
ancy, asked for the things they needed, re- 
gardless of others, as to whether they liked 
it or disliked it; like the little boy of six 
years who wanted a drum. When the mem- 
bers of the family objected because of the 
noise, he prayed for it, and, throwing his 
soul into his petition, was heard to say as 
he went to bed: 

** ' Now I lay me down to sleep ' — 
I want a drum — 

* I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep ' — 

I want a drum. 

* If I should die before I wake' — 

I want a drum — 
' I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take ' — 
I want a drum." 

There is no question but that he got his 
LofC. 



loo FAULTS OF LAYMEN 

drum, and the Church could get all she 
needs had she that persistent exercise of 
faith which intelligently claims promised 
good; and such praying would develop un- 
limited devotion. If this spirit prevailed 
the Church would not be so spasmodic in her 
movements and investments; greater care in 
her investments would introduce such 
methods as would increase the dividends and 
the people be more largely helped. There 
is such a thing as a scale of value. Some 
things now represented in dollars and cents 
can be converted into values demanding 
other scales; and there are things of ordin- 
ary value with which men may transact busi- 
ness so as to have them converted into price- 
less and immeasurable values. The Church 
must learn the art of having transient, earth- 
ly, perishable interests converted into eter- 
nal, imperishable and heavenly values. 
While the world is investing its energies 
in earthly things by exchanging time, 
thought and skill for dollars and cents, the 
Church ought to invest with an eye to largest 
returns. She should be careful to deal 



AS SEEN BY PASTORS, 



in those commodities that make the world 
better and dignify human life. There is an 
immutable law that governs all rewards in 
both worlds, and that law is within the reach 
of every investor. There is a joy, satisfac- 
tion and blessedness found in the performance 
of righteous deeds, and the earnest of reward 
may be enjoyed in this life, for all well-doing 
rewards itself, hence work in Christ's name 
and with the spirit of Jesus can never be 
lost; and he who gives most gives himself, 
for he who gives himself finds life plus eter- 
nal joy and pleasure at God's right hand. 
Let every business man identified with 
the church remember that fact, that he may 
learn with delight to ask: ''How much can I 
get into God's cause?" rather than: ''How 
little can I get along with and be respect- 
able ? " It is just as essential that men work 
in and for the church in order to realize the 
benefits of church life, as it is in commerce 
and education. Another has said : ''There 
are too many men who mean well and 
love the Church, but stand like silver 
apostles on her altar, waiting for some 



to2 FAULTS OF LAYMEN 

one to melt them down and coin them into 
money, and thus make them current, so that 
they can go about doing good." Paul once 
said to his brethren in Rome: " Ye are able 
to admonish one another." We need that 
admonition to-day. We need to be set to 
work, to have responsibilities laid on us, and 
to be so equipped and trained for service as 
to find our chief joy in the discharge of duty. 
A band of brethren working together with 
all their might are bound by the strongest 
ties. A working church is likely to be a 
united church, and a church which faith- 
fully works for God will be blest of God, and 
cannot fail to have prosperity and delight. 

A little incident in connection with the 
life of General Robert E. Lee and his faith- 
ful soldiers, soon after his surrender to Gen- 
eral Grant, impressed me with this thought. 
It was rumored that he was likely to be exe- 
cuted for treason. One day a Confederate 
soldier in the ragged remnants of a buttoned 
up uniform came to the general as he sat on 
the veranda of his home, and, after saluting 
him respectfully, said: "General, there are 



AS SEEN BY PASTORS. 103 

fifty more of us fellows around the corner." 
"Indeed," said the general, "why don't 
they come up to the house ? " ' 'Too ragged. 
They are raggeder that me. Now, I tell you 
what we're after, general. We hear that 
you are to be tried. Now we've got a moun- 
tain hollow up there, where nobody can get 
to, and there's a right smart of good land 
in it; and if you'll come along we'll w^ork 
the land for you, and take care of you and 
you shall never suffer want." The general 
called the rest of the ragged veterans into 
the hoase and told them it would not be 
proper for him to hide in the moun- 
tains or to seek escape in any way from 
whatever might befall him, but that he was 
very grateful to them for their offer. They 
had fought together. That spirit, doubtless 
made it very hard for the war to end, but it 
suggests a valuable lesson. If the church 
were one in purpose and spirit and would so 
use their provisions as to make every one 
feel at ease with little ability or wealth ; if 
men could give their little in the presence of 
the rich, and speak, give and live without 



104 FAULTS OF LAYMEN 

tlie fear of that criticism which cripples, and 
with an utter abandonment of self, throw 
themselves at the feet of Jesus for direction, 
the next decade would see such a change as 
no decade has ever yet made. Napoleon 
once called for a hundred men to lead in a 
forlorn hope and said: ' ' Doubtless every one 
will be killed' Who will die for the em- 
peror?" Not a hundred, but every man in 
the regiment sprang forward in solid line and 
presented their muskets, saying: ''Ready!" 
I firmly believe there are to-day thousands 
and hundreds of thousands who would die 
for Christ, but there is a louder call. It is a 
call tor men and women who will live for 
His cause. A living heroism and a martyr- 
dom that is ready to die daily. For our 
Captain calls not to a forlorn hope, but to a 
glorious victory. Oh, that the whole Church 
with unbroken ranks might spring forward, 
one living sacrihce, to be perpetuated until 
the Kingdom of Grod come and His will is 
done on earth as it is in Heaven. 



FIFTH ADDRESS. 



Faults o? Parents as Seen bg 
Ghildrei?. 



maternal love! tDou word mt sums all blisi 

Let parents be the same 
To all their children; common in their care, 
And in their love of them. 

— Thomas Southern. 

And these words, which I command thee this day, 
shall be in thine heart; and thou shall teach them dili- 
gently unto thy children, etc. — Moses. Dcut. 6, 6-7, 



FAULTS OF PARENTS AS SEEN BY 
CHILDREN. 



These words of Moses have the genuine 
ring of a military order. They were given 
in the interest of old Israel while in camp at 
the base of Mount Horeb, and if it were no 
more, it would be worthy of careful study, 
for there were interests associated with the 
march of Israel at that time that are still 
very sacred, and there were obstacles to over- 
come in the campaign of the wilderness 
such as no other commander has ever had. 
They defied all natural resources and found 
their solution in the ministry of the super- 
natural. 

In reading the account it is well to keep 
in mind that that age knew nothing of 
pontoon bridges, national granaries, sup- 
ply trains, or treasuries; nevertheless they 
crossed all rivers, guarded safely all inter- 
ests, and met every demand of that mighty 
caravan, every member of whom looked to 
Moses for life, health and happiness, while 



io§ FAULTS OF PARENTS 

journejang through the wilderness or over 
the desert. Modern commanders would do 
well to study some of the military orders of 
that man Moses, in view of cleanliness, chas- 
tity and discipline. 

But this is more than a military order ; it 
is not a spent ball given to serve, guard and 
protect the interests of Israel and then dis- 
appear. ISTay, it was written by God' s finger 
on the tables of stone and sent forth from 
the senate chamber of eternity with the deca- 
logue, and contains the soul and spirit of 
the whole system of divinity essential to the 
salvation and perfection of the race. A law 
perfected and fulfilled by the incarnation of 
Jesus Christ, who came not to destroy nor to 
render obsolete, but to fulfill every word of 
the entire decalogue. Let ns note then some 
thoughts suggested by these words given Is- 
rael by that ancient leader. 

HEART. 

First, they are to be in the heart. Heart- 
lessness is the greatest fault of parents in 
every age in reference to the religious in- 
terests of their children. Their teaching is al- 



AS SEEN BY CHILDREN. 109 

together too theoretical and too little heart- 
felt. Tlie minister, visiting a home, took 
the lad of the house in his arms and soon be- 
gan to talk to him about heaven, whereupon 
the lad said : '^ Do you think heaven is bet- 
ter than Ohio ?'' '^Oli, yes, my child, don't 
you ?' ' ' ' Well papa don' t think so. " " How 
do you know T' "'Cause papa never talks 
about heaven, and he is always talking 
about Ohio/' 

The natural insight of the child is almost 
equal to the latest discovery in j)liotog- 
rapliy ; he almost feels what is in the pa- 
rent' s mind, and sometimes it is exceedingly 
embarrassing. A clegyman reciting an in- 
cident in the ijresence of his boy so interested 
the child that he became curious as to the 
facts, and said : ''Father, is that really so, 
or is it only preaching?" But the child in 
either case judges x^kilosophically, for the 
law established by the divine Giver of all 
law is here employed. ''Out of the abun- 
dance of the heart the mouth speaketh." 
And the wisdom of the text is indicated in 
its arrangement: " These words shall be in 



no FAULTS OF PARENTS 

thine heart" as safeguards to personal piety . 
Not simply mental storing of vehicles, but 
the bringing of God and His Word into the 
soil and nature of the heart, so that they 
shall become a life with power to command 
and influence others. 

If this story can only preoccupy the soil 
before it is sapped and weakened by the 
perishable, how strong the people of God 
might become, for His word in the heart 
abides endlessly in its purity and power. 
Men of all nations and of all grades and of 
all schools have tried to destroy the vitality 
and life of the scriptures, but the record 
shows how they have been and are mocked. 
The few sentences written on the stormy 
heights of old Horeb now fill the whole 
earth, floating on all seas, riding on all trains, 
and resting in all homes. They are to give 
light ; they are the source of all that is hope- 
ful. I do not mean simply the listening to 
the reading of God's word, for the most pre- 
cious seed sometimes falls on stony ground, 
and is caught up by birds and borne away. 
In such cases it is no fault of the seed that 



AS SEEN BY CHILDREN. iii 

there is no harvest, but the reception it gets. 
AVhen once the Word of God gets a hold on 
the inner consciousness of man there is light 
in all the chambers. When darkness rested 
on all things in chaotic night, before light had 
kindled its fire or the morning star had 
taken to itself form, God spake and there 
was light. Since the beginning children 
ask: ''Who laid the foundations of the 
earth?-' ''Who wound the springs of this 
vast machinery now moving silently on with 
undiminished power?" "Hath the rain a 
father ?" "Canst thou bind the sweet influ- 
ences of Pleiades or loose the bands of 
Orion ?" "How dark ! who shall explain ?" 
God speaks, and in ten little w^ords all is 
made clear : "In the beginning God created 
the heavens and the earth." Surely "the 
entrance of His word givetli light." Every 
parent ought to be able to speak out of the 
heart wherein God is sanctified. 

Again, it giveth understanding; and with 
the understanding heart there is hope. Many 
a wrecked mariner, wounded soldier and 
cast-off wretch have been saved by the word 



■'"^ 



112 FAULTS OF PARENTS 

of God stored in the heart by some parent or 
teacher. In the moment of despair, light 
burst upon the consciousness with a hope, 
and eternal life has been secured out of a 
Sheridanic defeat. 

The poor, profane shopman who put a leaf 
of the Bible into his pocket to light his pipe 
with, read while it burned: ''Go thy way 
until the end be, for thou shalt rest, and stand 
in thy lot at the end of the days." He had 
heard this before, and was filled with thought; 
forgetting to smoke, he asked: ^' What will 
my lot be ? For what am 1 fitting myself ?" 
and was saved. Cromwell's soldier who 
opened the Bible to see how far the bullet 
had penetrated it and found it had stopped 
where his mother had marked these words, 
often repeated in his hearing: ''Rejoice, O 
young man, in thy youth, and walk in the 
ways of thine heart in the sight of thine eyes, 
but know thou that God will bring thee 
into judgment," and he was saved to tell 
the story himself. Thou shalt have these 
words in thine heart to give light and under- 
standing. 



^ ' 



AS SEEN BY CHILDREN. 113 

Again, tliey guard the heart against temp- 
tation to sin. ''Thy word have I hid in my 
lieart, that Imiglit not sin against thee," said 
the Psahnist. That is, he stored them for a 
purpose. There is a culture and a polish 
that conies from tlie recital of Scripture. 
Daniel Webster was one of the greatest 
readers of Scripture this country has pro- 
duced. The effect is seen in the beauty and 
strength of his diction. There are a great 
many who read it constantly, and are able to 
recite it tiij)pantly, and think they have ac- 
complished much because they read it 
through every year and are able to recite 
whole chapters, and yet you see no evidence 
of strength- I know of a soldier who read 
the Bible through in six weeks and noted 
the contents of every chai)ter, while in the 
army and on duty, but no one would place 
any value on the comments. You have 
heard boys in the school recite Greenleafs 
arithmetic page after page, ''verbatim, et lit- 
eratim, et punctuatim," when the sim idlest 
problem given under any rule in the book 
would confuse them. But David hid the 



114 FAULTS OF PARENTS 

word of God in liis heart for a purpose; that 
is, he guarded every weak point where the 
enemy might approach. He literally built up 
a wall of defense round about him out of the 
word of God. This was military sagacity, 
pliilosophic foresight and the j)ersonification 
of wisdom, resulting in safety to the man. 
God help all parents to store His Word thus 
wisely in the hearts of their children, that 
they may see, understand and sin not. 

EASILY SATISFIED. 

Secondly: Parents are too easily satisfied. 
They say of their boy : ' ' He' s kind-hearted ; 
there never was a better hearted child;" 
and yet he yields to temptation, falls and 
does that which brings shame and sorrow to 
the heart that speaks thus kindly of him. 
Why? Because there are no guards that hold 
and preserve in times of temptation; in other 
words, the Word of God has not been hidden 
in the heart, so as to keep him from sinning. 
Take the reclaimed land of old Holland, for, 
as you know, most of the fairest, fertile 
and rich land of that beautiful country 
was taken from the sea, and it has been pre- 



AS SEEN BY CHILDREN. 115 

served by a long and hard fight with the 
sea. Really it is a wonderful stor^^ The 
late Bishop Haygood estimated that the an- 
nual expense of keeping up the dikes of Hol- 
land has been from §2,000,000 to $2,500,000. 
Engineers are constantly employed, and 
every provision is made to keep them in re- 
pair; watchmen are employed to patrol the 
Dikes day and night, and charged to give 
alarm whenever the danger appears, or when 
the tides threaten to over-floAv. The people 
hasten to the point threatened, with mats of 
straw and rushes and large sheets of sail- 
cloth, with which to throw up a temporary 
bulwark, to be more securely built before 
the approach of the next tide. We can 
hardly appreciate such an outlay, because 
we do not fully appreciate the ravages of 
the sea. For instance, in 1277, at one 
single inundation, forty-four villages were 
swept into destruction; ten years later 80,000 
persons were destroyed; and in the fifteenth 
century 100,000 men, women and children 
were buried m the deep, by the breaking 
away of one of these dikes. Now, it seems 



ii6 FAULTS OF PARENTS 

to me that if parents were as careful of the 
redeemed nature of children, they would 
throw up dikes constructed out of the 
living word of God, and never be satisfied 
until the entire manhood or womanhood 
become fruitful in rightness, and impreg- 
nable in the midst of the seas of temj)tation 
and sin through which they are passing. 
We ought to remember that evil is strong, 
wide spread; the devil is loosed; the powers 
of darkness have developed an intenser activ- 
ity than at any former i3eiiod in the history 
of this race. Let no one dream of Millennial 
peace, either by day or night; keep the watcli- 
njan on patrol, listening to the sullen roar 
and threatening tides, that warning may be 
given — that the redemed may be preserved 
unto everhisting holiness. Tins must be 
done largely by preoccupying the minds and 
hearts of children, and by giving them sucli 
books to read as will elevate their concep- 
tions, refine their tastes, and fix in them 
such habits of thought and sentiment as shall 
forever protect them. "Thou slialt teach 
them diligently," selecting such thing as are 



AS SEEN BY CHILDREN. 117 

most potent and never snffering a weak point 
to go nnguarded. 

Plato once said: ''Could I climb to some 
mountain and speak to all men, I would ask 
tliem why they seek to lay up gold to the 
neglect of their children; why spend their 
time seeking tliat which may curse, and neg- 
lect to give them that training Avhich would 
enable them to seek gold for themselves." 
Wealth in banks, bonds and estate is not a 
guarantee against future sorrow. Nay, a 
large i)er cent of our criminals have inherited 
wealth; thej^ are children of wealthy parents 
and their imj)risonment is too often the re- 
sult of neglect while the wealth was being 
accumulated. Nine go through the camp of 
idleness and dissapation, from the lap of 
luxury to the penitentiary, to every one 
wlio goes from the held of honest toil and 
earnest struggle. 

Again: We ought to remember that every 
fire of life is builded out of the fuel stored 
in the mind. It is easy to tell what a man 
reads by vstudying his i')i*oductions, deeds and 
movements, indeed, I never knew but one 



ii8 FAULTS OF PARENTS 

man that did not betray Ms cribbing in his 
style; no man could tell where Mr. Beecher 
gathered his material for his talks, lectures, 
addresses and sermons. It is of greatest im- 
portance that parents guard their children 
Avhile a taste that is to govern the whole life 
is being formed. You may think, or bring 
yourself to think, the child will see differ- 
ently when he comes to mature thought, but 
you are mistaken. First, he will never come 
to mature thought unless the mind be stored 
with that which is creative of thought. You 
may just as soon expect a child who has 
given his whole life to the formation and 
strengthening of the habit for strong drink 
to stop suddenly and call for cold water, 
while every fibre of his being calls for whis- 
key, as to exj)ect the boy who has cultivated 
a taste for trash and stored his mind with 
works of fiction and sentimentality to stop 
suddenly and call for the works of Bacon, 
Plato and Socrates. The text indicates that 
these things are to be tauglit. I do not sup- 
l)ose that the strictest interpretation would 
for a moment confine the teacher to the sub- 



AS SEEN BY CHILDREN. 119 

ject named in the text, but every science 
known to man has a basal truth in this old 
code, and when the children of men have the 
principles set forth in the decalogue fully es- 
tablished in the heart, they will have the key 
to a broader sweep in every field than any 
generation has yet had. With this view, 
the decalogue may become to you what the 
lane was to the famous dreamer, a boundless 
iield without horizon. An American youth, 
it is said, acquired a good education from 
Pope' s translation of Homer. In it he found 
elegant language, perfect morals and man- 
ners, poetry for his imagination, heroism 
to inflame his heart, piety to culture his 
spirit, and by it he was brought into com- 
munion with two great men and their Maker, 
one a Greek, the other an Englishman, and 
he learned God's method of dealing with 
these men; and more than all he was guided 
by the spirit of God in the translation. So 
shall it be in the study of these principles, 
we shall have the guidance and inspiration 
of the Holy Ghost, presenting, enforcing 
and applying Jehovah's thought on life, 



■■" <?^»?9'! 



1:20 FAULTS OF PARENTS 

its origin, development, culture and immor- 
tality. 

Mark the text again: '^Thou shall talk of 
them when thou sittest in thine house, when 
thou liest down, and when thou risest up." 
That is, thou shalt make the language of 
home pure and scriptural, that the joy, kind- 
ness, patience, hopefulness and love of the 
Infinite shall make the place delightful. I 
think Josephine Pollard has served her gen- 
eration marvel ously well by putting the story 
of Scriptural life into a beautifully illustrated 
book, entitled ''The Beautiful Day." I wish 
all parents would read it with their child- 
ren, for I am sure they would feel that any 
man who is too busy to teach his children 
God's law and train them in that which per- 
tains to holy living, is too busy to be a father. 
Let every father beware lest the claims and 
public duties of life so preoccupy his time 
and thought as to forbid his finding a place 
among the jewels when God makes His selec- 
tion, and his children be swept away and 
led to plot against him as did Absolem of 
old. The language implies more than sim- 



AS SEEN BY CHILDREN. 



ply recitation. It means training, and here 
many of our sux)erficial readers fail to distin- 
guish when applying the words of Solomon 
^ Train up a child in the way he should go 
and when he is old he will not depart from 
it." It doesn't say teach, it saj'S train. So 
many have found a stumbling-block in this 
passage of scripture, tluit I stop a moment 
to emphasize the word ''Train" which im- 
plies exercise, put into use the principles 
taught, until it becomes natural, and the sou 
instinctively closes every avenue of approach 
at the sound or suggestion of the Evil One. 
Paients should fix the impress of a spirit- 
ual atmosphere and a right i)urpose in the 
heart of the child, so that all questions, social, 
literary and religious, would be answered 
by a standard that is prefixed and that pre- 
occupies the life. For instance : if the child 
does not want to eat, you say it must; and if 
it doesn' t want to wear the clothes provided 
you don't enter into discussion with it, 
— Why should you in soul culture? Why 
not in the higher and more important inter- 
ests so train the child that it will never think 



122 FAULTS OF PARENTS 

of discussing the matter, but immediately 
proceed to act. The importance of this 
training is enhanced by the shortness of 
time allowed for preparing the heart and life 
for the future. No man can afford to waste 
one moment of the precious time allowed the 
boy in the home for preparation for future 
work. 

Mothers should never be too busy to help 
the young heart to bear its little burdens or 
griefs. They are often too heavy for the 
young heart. Most mothers can sympathize 
with the lady who gives her experience in 
the following story, published in the Church 
Evangelist: 

''Mother, mother!" cried little Willie, com- 
ing upon me as I sat busily at work, '*I have 
lost my arrow in the grass and can't find it." 
He was ready to burst into tears at his mis- 
hap. 

'^I am sorry dear," I said, as I went on 
with my work. 

' 'Won' t you go and find it for me, mother?' ' 
he asked, with a quivering lip, as he laid 
hold of my arm, 



AS SEEN BY CHILDREN. 123 

' '1 am too busy, dear, ' ' I replied. ' 'Go tell 
Jane to lind it for you.'' 

''Jane can t find it," said the little fellow 
in a clioking voice. 

'Tell her to look again. '^ 

"She has looked all over. Won't you 
come, mother, and find it for me?' ' 

The tears were rolling down his face, but 
1 was too busy embroidering a little linen 
sacque I was making for him, and that 
seemed of more importance than the happi- 
ness of my child. 

' 'There, there! Don' t be so foolish as to cry 
at the loss of an arrow; I am ashamed of 
you! Go look for it yourself." 

AVillie went crying downstairs, and I heard 
liim in the yard until my patience gave out. 
"Ellen," I heard him say, "won't you make 
me an arrow? Here is a stick.'' 

"No, indeed; I have something else to do 
besides making arrows," said the cook. 

I felt vexed at Ellen. She might have 
done it. If I were not so busy I would make 
it myself, I thought, and I sewed on as be- 
fore. Willie's heart was almost broken, but 



124 FAULTS OF PARENTS 

I was not in a mood to sympatliize with him. 
The loss of an arrow seemed a very trifling 
thing to me. ' 'Willie," I called out of the 
window, ''you must stop crying." 

"T can't find my arrow, and nobody will 
make me one." 

''Go find something else to play with. 
Come sir, yon must stop this crying. I won't 
have the noise." 

"I can't find my arrow," he said, with 
quivering lip. 

"Well, crying won't find it. Come up 
stairs." 

Willie ascended to my room. ' 'Now don' t 
let me hear one word more of this. Take 
better care of your arrow next time." 

There was no sympathy in my tones, for I 
felt none. I did not think of his loss, but of 
the annoyance of his crying. The little fel- 
low stified his grief as best he could, and, 
throwing himself on the floor, sighed and 
sobbed for some minutes. Before long he 
fell asleep. How instantly do our feelings 
change toward a child when we find it is 
asleep. Tenderness comes in place of sterner 



AS SEEN BY CHILDREN. 125 

emotions. I laid aside my work, and, tak- 
ing Willie in my arms, laid him on my bed. 
Another deep sigh came from him as his 
head touched the pillow and Avas echoed in 
my heart. Poor child! the loss of the arrow 
was a great thing to him. I wished that I 
had put away my work for a few minutes 
and made him a new one. What is a little 
time taken from my work to the happiness 
of my child ? I wish I could learn to think 
right at the right time. Dear little fellow; I 
stood for nearly five minutes over my sleep- 
ing child. AVhen I turned away I did not 
resume my work, for I had no heart to work 
on the little garment. 

' ' I went down to the garden, and the first 
thing that met my eye was the arrow, partly 
hidden by a rose bush. So easily found ! 
How much would a minute have saved, given 
at the right time ! We learn when too late, 
and repent when repentance does not avail. 

''The first notice I had of his being awake 
was his gratified exclamation at finding his 
arrow beside him. His grief was forgotten. 
In a few minutes he was out shooting his 



126 FAULTS OF PARENTS 

arrow again. But I could not forget it. I 
was serious for many hours afterwards, for 
the consciousness of having done wrong, as 
well as having been the occasion of grief to 
my child, lay with a heavy pressure upon 
my feelings." 

It is a remarkable fact that most of the 
great men who have graced history with 
their achievements, have received their first 
inspiration from Christian mothers. 

Washington, w^hose name is still a house, 
hold treasure in this country, was blessed 
with a good mother, of whom he once 
said: ''AH I am or hope to be 1 ow^e to 
my angel mother." She was not intellectu- 
ally a strong woman, but retained her 
youthful ambition, and planned with and 
for him as living in the same generation. 
She made home the most delightful place in 
the world; hence she was the most delight- 
ful companion he could possibly have as a 
boy. We shall never know how much we 
owe to that woman who guided his thought 
through the reading of the Bible before she 
went to her angel home. Thus before he 
was ten years old, she had established a love 



AS SEEN BY CHILDREN. 127 

for the Scriptures such as made him a close 
student of the Bible all his life. 

Goethe, the great German poet, was the 
pet of his mother before she was out of her 
teens; and retaining her genial, social and 
intellectual vigor, furnished him inspiration 
and counsel during the days in which he did 
his best Avork. In the language of Naj^oleon 
II., Avho never forgot his allegiance to his 
mother, Lucretia Bonaparte, ' 'America needs 
mothers whose authority is characterized by 
sweet reasonableness, then the children can 
respect their authority and cherish the prin- 
ciples given them. 



Lili: 



SIXTH ADDRESS. 



Care o? Children. 



epbraitti is a caKe not turnea. 

-Rosea 7-$- 

Do good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; 

Do noble things, not dream them, all day long, 
And so make life, death and that vast forever, 

One grand sweet song. 

— Charles Kingsley. 

Youth might be wise. 

We suffer less from pain than pleasures. 

—Bailey, 



CARE OF CHILDREN. 



Exodus, 2-3. — *' And when she could no longer hide 
him, she took for him an ark of hulrushes, and daubed 
it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein ; 
and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink." 

In this unique item of history we have a 
statement of a mother's care for her child in 
time of peril. The mother's name was 
Jochebed, of the house of Levi; her son's 
name was Moses. He was born at a time 
when Egypt became alarmed because of the 
prosperity of Israel. The king had done 
what he could to destroy the fortune of that 
people. Every male child was to be killed 
at birth; every promotion was to be given to 
Egyptians in order to make it impossible for 
any concert of action among the Israelites. 
Their burdens were increased in everyway 
so that they had no time for reading or self- 
improvement. Thus all hope of prosperity 
or influence was cut off. When the law was 
in full force Moses was born. Jochebed 
looked on him with a mothers pride, for we 
are told he was beautiful in form and come- 



:^X'?^ 



132 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 

liness. To lier he was the sweetest babe in 
all the Avoiid, and she pnrposed in her heart 
to save him, if possible; so the father was 
sworn to secrecy and went forth with sealed 
lips, donbting the propriety of the under- 
taking perhaps, but willing to aid the wife 
and mother in doing her best. His hours 
were full of anxiety as he looked for some 
sign on his return home night after night, 
week after week^ until months had passed 
and the child was still with its mother; not a 
cry had escaped the home; no sign of his 
presence had appeared; but the hour came 
when prudence indicated that the child must 
go. He could no longer be sheltered in 
safetj^ to himself and the family, and the 
question arose : How can he be saved from 
the hand of the law. Doubtless it was the 
topic of conversation by day and by night, 
until at last plans were adopted and the ark 
was constructed, into which the babe was 
placed. The place where the king's daugh- 
ters came daily to bathe was selected for the 
spot of deposit in the Nile. How carefully 
that Hebrew mother pitched the ark. I 



w- 



THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 133 

think every stick, thread, daub, was made 
in prayer that God would shield, protect and 
save her child. Precious treasure placed in 
the water with a prayer for the sympathy 
and attention of the king s daughter. There 
was but one chance for the child — if the 
heart of the fathers could be stirred. How 
long that sailless craft floated on the Nile we 
have no means of knowing, but the hour 
came and the daughter arrived, to be greeted 
by a sharp, clear voice. What is it ? What 
can it be ? A child — yes, the ark contains a 
beautiful boy, a Hebrew child. Some mother 
has placed this treasure here with a ' ' God 
bless you" in order to preserve his life. 
The child weeps and the womanly instincts 
are moved; her nature is mightier than law. 
Those tears on the face of the lieli3less babe 
in the river was more than she could resist. 
Those tears spoke as no human voice could 
speak. What is hei^e — a child amid the 
waters — floods to come, crocodiles to devour. 
No — no — though it is a Hebrew babe, and a. 
mother's hand had placed it there. The 
heart of the woman was moved, and she. 



134 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 

tiirniiig to Miriam, who liad been standing 
there, bids her run bring a nurse, and 
Miriam, only too gladly, hastens to the 
praying mother. ' ^ Mother, she wants a 
nurse to care for the babe, our darling babe." 
ISTone can tell with what mingling emotions 
that mother went forth to meet the king's 
daughter; thinking how she could hide the 
facts from the King's threat, and wondering 
how long she would be j)ermittod to care for 
her child. Shall it be weeks months or 
years? What is to be the future of my 
child? Returning with her babe the air is 
full of ''God bless you, my darling! God 
hath given you back to me for a little time; 
I' 11 do the best for you while I am ]3ermitted 
to keep you." There are some very ju'ofit- 
able lessons here. 

Our children are threatened by forces more 
ruinous to character and strength than the 
threats of Pharaoh. Every day we are called 
to look on wrecks along the shores of time, 
ruined by the forces ordained and sanctioned 
l)y the authorities of the land, and these 
wrecks are from our homes. 



THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 135 

Not long ago a lad seventeen years of age, 
who lived in Xova Scotia Avas murdered by 
a boy of eleven, living in the most pleasant 
part of Brunswick street, within a gun-shot 
of lialf a dozen churches. Twenty-four hours 
later we read the details of a foul murder 
committed by three boys in the city of Bos- 
ton, one of the actors being sixteen years old. 
Twenty-four hours more and Xew York is 
shocked by the death of a boy from one of 
her wealthiest homes. He had been known 
as a prodigal and a drunkard. His mother 
had not seen or known of her son's where- 
abouts for ten years. N'ow she looks on the 
face of her dead. She at first did not know 
her own child, but at length she recognized 
one feature after another, and then throwing 
up her hands she cried: '^ It is he, my long- 
lost son/' He had gone out from a home of 
wealth to run the brief career of a profligate, 
and had died the death of a vagabond. And 
so day after day some youth, once fair and 
held the joy of a mother's heart, reaches the 
sad end of an ignoble career. The record of 
youthful wanderings from virtue is like the 



136 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 

scroll whicli the prophet saw in his sad vision; 
it is written within and without, and is full 
of lamentation, mourning and v\^oe. Must 
-this havoc go on ? Can nothing be done that 
will arrest this ruin ? What young person 
in our home, school or congregation is safe 
amid the sweeping tides of sin? How are 
the young borne doAvn the rapid stream of 
dissipation from innocence ? Where are the 
children of this century when the shades of 
night gather ? Alas, too often in the pres- 
ence of men and women whose only business 
here is to ruin others, that they may endure 
their own shame. We are not ignorant of 
these things. 'We wait with many a mis- 
giving for the safe return and the keejjing 
of promises made. They come to tell us it 
shall never be repeated. Still those frail 
forms go swinging at the movement of time, 
fascinated and charmed with music to the 
midnight supper, and the wine is telling its 
story. We see it and hope for a change, but 
it will never come till liealth is gone and 
character ruined. 
Come with me into real life for a moment. 



THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 137 

Before we enter the presence of the victim, I 
want to tell you something of the case. You 
will meet a poor, dejected countenance with 
pale cheeks, sunken eyes, withered form — 
a boy of 27 years of age, whom none 
think of only to pity and to loathe. Who 
is he? He was once one of the most beau- 
tiful and charming young men in town. 
But the time of amusements came and the 
parents had thought him safe; they were 
members of the christian church and he a 
prominent member of the Sunday-school; 
they had yielded to the popular idea of ac- 
complishment to be found in the social dance. 
Their boy went forth, fresh, pure, and grace- 
ful, to return sick, wrecked, ruined; charged 
with shame, and the ruin of others. He is 
waiting, with compliments of the season, for 
death to close the chapter of his sad career. 
Did you ever attend the last services of such 
a person? Certainly, often; and at the grave 
have heard the good parson say; ''God hath 
seen fit to take the soul of the departed out 
of this world." Ah, God hath no pleasure 
in the death of the wicked. Sin drove that 






138 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 

fair spirit from the form now cold in death • 
The poor child had danced all night in thin 
apparel; he had consented to accompany as 
an escort some fair lady through the sharp 
wind of the morning in a tired and exhausted 
condition; and alas, the distance was too 
great, the wind too cold. He had exposed 
himself to shield his friend, and in a few 
short hours he is dead, murdered with his own 
consent; and the charge will often be found 
at the door of home — mother and father. 

My readers, you who are responsible for 
the lives of children, I lift my voice against 
these forms of evil, tolerated in society and 
apologized for in our American homes, and 
because of that fact we are endangered more 
than we ever stop to think of. Because of the 
social and civil support given the leaders in 
ruin, they are made bold and our children 
confident. And you have no assurance that 
your boy will escape the blight unless the 
character is made. Ten thousand snares are 
set for the young you know nothing of; they 
did not exist when you were young. The 
narcotics used in this age are sowing the 



w 



THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 139 

seeds of dissipation as never before. The 
literature of tliis age is most dangerous. 
While the liquor traffic, tolerated and le- 
galized, is sweeping its thousands into end- 
less shame annually. Our children must live 
in these streets to a large degree if they 
succeed in accomplishing anything in this 
life. One thing remains for us to do; cover 
them with a coat of mail that will withstand 
the missiles of ruin to w^hich they are exposed. 
''Build for them an ark." Mrs. Jochebed 
had little to aid her in fitting her son for the 
work awaiting him. Israel was no longer 
Avhat it had been in the days of Jacob and 
Joseph. A slave, living in the worst form of 
slavery, yet she gave to the world a man 
second to none, unless it be Paul. Surely 
there must have been some invisible presence 
to inspire that mother and train that boy; 
Jor she gave him what the belles of society 
never give their children, if children they 
have. He came forth with a manliness and 
power society never gave a giddy woman's 
son. She gave him a woman's devotion and 
a giant' s will, and sent him to unfold and 



I40 THE GARE OF CHILDREN. 

re-live lier life with all the influence his 
position in the Court gave him. Here then 
is mother's opportunity to bless the world, 
for there is no law more uniform in this life 
than the law of reproduction of the mother' s 
life in the boy. Byron's mother was proud, 
ill-tempered and violent; what of her son? 
Napoleon's mother was a most beautiful, 
energetic and ambitious lady; he said, ^'It 
was my mother who first inspired me with 
the desire to be great." Sir Walter Scott's 
mother was a lover of poetry and painting: 
no marvel that her son is the greatest of 
Scottish bards. Patrick Henry' s mother was 
remarkable for her conversational powers; 
and her son was the American Demosthenes. 
Washington's mother was pure, true and 
pious; and her illustrious son exemplifies her 
virtues. John Quincy Adams' mother was 
distinguished for intelligence and piety; and 
her son said, '^I owe all that I am to my 
mother." The mother of John Wesley Avas 
extraordinary for her intellectuality, piety 
and executive ability; and she is justly called 
'^The mother of Methodism." Benjamin 



THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 141 

West, that distinguislied artist ascribed liis 
renown to his mother s kiss. When a youth 
he sketched his baby sister asleep in her 
cradle. In that rough outline his mother 
saw the evidence of genius, and in her ma- 
ternal pride she kissed her son. In after 
life West was wont to say, *'That kiss made 
me an artist." 

Mothers- impressions have a resurrection 
in second childhood. Dr. ]N"ott, so long- 
President of Union College, relasped into 
second childhood, and when restless he was 
easily quieted to sleep by Watts' cradle 
hymn: 

"Hush, my babe, lie still and slumber." 

The last time he conducted family worship, 
he forgot himself and concluded with the 
well-known lines, beginning, ^'JN^ow I lay me 
down to sleep." I do not wonder that Robert 
Hall said, 'The family is the seminary of the 
social affections and the cradle of sensibility 
where the first elements are acquired of that 
tenderness and humanity which cements 
mankind together, and were they entirely 



142 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 

extinguished, the whole fabric of social in- 
stitutions would be dissolved. 

From Christian homes come forth the 
saints of the church. Recall Samuel and 
Jeremiah and John the Baptist, who were 
sanctified from their birth. Good King 
Josiah knew the Lord when but eight years 
old. Timothy knew the Scriptures from a 
child. Polycarp died at the age of ninety- 
five, and had served the Lord eighty- six 
years; hence he was but nine when converted, 
Baxter embraced the Savior when a youth; 
Jonathan Edwards at the age of seven; Isaac 
Watts at nine; Matthew Henry at eleven, 
and Robert Hall at twelve. 

I do not wonder that the famous states- 
men of all nations, as Draco, Lycurgus, 
Solon, Napoleon and AVashington gave 
attention to childhood. How precious the 
influence of mother. There is no velvet so 
soft as mother's laj), no rose so sweet as a 
mother's cheek, no music so charming as a 
mother' s voice, and no way for any mother 
to accomplish so much as by preparing lier 
son or sons to relive a holy life. 



THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 143 

The safety of the boy while at home is only 
a small part of the contract. The great work 
is in preparing a coat of mail that shall pro- 
tect him when he enters the arena of 
life. One thing only can guarantee safety 
Avhen the time comes to go, — a character 
made invulnerable. This must be done by 
constant watchfulness. 

If we suffer the young to go out from our 
homes without being able to state their con- 
victions and give a reason for their hope, the 
chances are they will never reach any point 
of decision in religious matters. You may 
feel afraid to urge your son or daughter to a 
question of so much importance, and you 
may flatter yourself that your child is bet- 
ter than some poor, weak, faltering christian 
you know; but a moment's reflection will 
show this to be folly. In matters of religion 
Ave do more for our children before they are 
six years old than afterward. 

On the summit of the Rocky Mountains 
there are two lakes 10,000 feet above the 
level af the sea, so near together that a boy 
standing on the shores of one may throw a 



144 the: care of children. 

stone into the other, and with a little effort 
they might both be turned into one channel, 
but the West lake sends its waters down 
over the Eastern slope from plateau to 
plateau, with increasing force, until it makes 
its way through the Father of Waters into 
the Atlantic, while the Eastern goes over the 
Western slope into the Columbia, and on 
into the Pacific. It were an easy matter to 
have changed either, but now who shall 
gather the waters from the Mississippi and 
carry them up 10,000 feet to send them 
AYestward? Who shall change their destiny 
in the emblem of eternity? 

So it is an easy matter to mould that little 
child Avhile mother is all the world, and 
father is the best God ever made. ISTo love 
like mother s to a small child; it will melt 
the whole Bible into living precepts in that 
heart, and father is the greatest man God 
ever made until the child sees one wrong- 
act. 

Plato, the great Greek philosopher, had a 
rule that when he found a child in fault, he 
went immediately to his parents to correct 



THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 145 

them. Parents, teachers, what if God shouhl 
phice in your hands diamonds, saying: 
''Whatsoever ye Avrite on these shall be read 
in the light of endless day before the as- 
sembled universe. With what care would 
you select and write on those precious jewels. 
Well, these immortal spirits are in your 
hands; what are you writing on them ? 

Alexander, Avhile in England, was given a 
Avatch, and on his return to Eussia looked 
through his kingdom for a jeweler to repair 
it, but sought in vain. He was obliged to 
send it to England for readjustment. There 
were many to try, but it was too valuable 
for experiment. 

Let not unskilled hands touch these im- 
mortal minds. God alone can save them. 

A young man in his cell, visited by his 
mother, said: ''Mother, had you done your 
duty, 1 should not be here as a murderer.- ' 
''Why. my child, 1 never told you to do a 
Avrong thing in my life." ''No, nor a good 
thing either; you left me to choose for my- 
self and do as T had a mind to.'' 

Does the Church insist on men, women 



146 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 

and cliildren having a definite reason for 
their acceptance or rejection of the truth we 
preach, or are we satisfied to liave tliem re- 
spectful sympathizers Avith the Church be- 
cause their parents are members? Are we 
rejoicing in the benevolence and orthodoxy 
of our Sunday school and church, and fail- 
ing to do anything toward persuading sin- 
ners to flee from the wrath to come? If so, 
are we not practically saying to men and 
women: ''It is enough that ye be Scribes 
and Pharisees,'- while wringing down the 
ages is the testimony of Jesus: ''Except 
your righteousness exceed the righteousness 
of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no 
case enter into the kingdom of Heaven." 

After years of experience and much in- 
quiry, I am convinced that the most of these 
Ephraimites might liave been thoroughly 
saved had the right word been spoken at the 
right time. There have been times in their 
jjast history when under the influence of 
prayer oi* sermon the spirit so melted the 
heart that one drop of truth dropped by a 
loving heart woukl have entered the life to 



THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 147 

germinate and grow. Then from the depth 
of the heart they cried: ''Oh, that I knew 
where I might find Him!'' 

But the man wlio' preached the sermon 
turned away in utter indifference, or some 
member of his church offered a criticism upon 
the sermon, and the poor man went away to 
grieve and harden in his indiffeience to 
trutli and enmity toward God. 

Others have been awakened to confess their 
sins, but met by a cuff, scold, storm, or criti- 
cised in a w^ay that chilled them, were driven 
into sins to hide their deeds from further 
publicity, and covering their ways, tliey be- 
come hard in their judgment of men who 
profess religion. 

Nay, my brothers, the Balaams, the So- 
j)hiras and Ephralmites are not the fruit of 
one deed, but the result of many influences. 

Mr. Hazel wood, now a leading Bajptist 
clergyman, when a boy was boarding in a 
Christian family, with w^hom he attended 
church. One night, under the preaching of 
the Word, he w^as greatly moved; he wej^t 
bitterly over his sins, and on returning home 



M. 



148 THE CARE OF CHILDREr. 

family prayers came without a word or even 
the mention of his name. He went to his 
room to weep alone, and soon felt that they 
had no particnlar interest in his salvation, 
and wandered in sin for years. Had they 
said one word he might have escaped those 
years of sorrow. 

Did yon ever watch the formation of an 
icicle? If left to the work of the sun and 
the law of gravitation, you will have a body 
of ice, moss, sediment, spotted and ugly; an 
nnsightly mess just in proportion to the con- 
dition of the surface over which or through 
which the water passes; but if you stand 
there and watch the water and blow out the 
moss and stay the sediment, you may have a 
most j)erfect body of ice, clear as crystal, 
spotless, transjjarent, and perfectly invul- 
nerable in its present condition. But mark, 
it has been a matter of growth, drop after 
drop, guided by constant watchfulness. So 
the formation of character is rendered by 
slow and constant work, and if every im- 
pression is guarded, every addition from the 
world must be guided. This superintend- 
ency of details is all important. 



THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 149 

Some years ago, an Eastern man wlio had 
amassed a large fortune, was asked the 
secret of his marvelous success. AVas it in- 
dustry ? Not wholly, for others had worked 
as hard and long, who were still poor. Was 
it energy? No, others with more energy 
were in poverty. Nor luck. But if in any 
one thing, it was in the careful attention to 
details, leaving nothing to subordinates, but 
putting his hand on all interest. 

So with the great architect and designer 
of Florence, one of the wonders of Italy. He 
did not content himself in leaving the execu- 
tion of his plans to others, but personallj^ 
superintended the laying of the brick. It 
is said every brick that went into that dome 
was examined by him. 

" Train up a child in the way he should 
go, and when he is old he will not depart 
from it.'' Train and superintend while 
tlie child does the things which are correct, 
and by the act of the mind the child will 
become right, as a habit of right is estab- 
lished. Train him in reference to future life 
that which he is to be, where he is to go, 



■^^y^' 



150 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 

wliat lie is to do. I tliink Moses' mother 
did not suffer any to work on that ark in her 
absence; she superintended that coat of mail; 
too precious was that cargo to be sent out to 
sea in any uncertain craft. 

Here many stumble and fail, thinking 
when they teach their children to do certain 
things they have done all that can be done, 
and hence it matters little who has to do 
with them in school or street. I've told 
them, therefore they will not go to the bad; 
if they do, then the Scriptures are not true 
and Solomon is a false prophet. Now I do 
not propose to give any rules lor governing 
a family or families, but one thing is clearly 
set forth as a fact; children will not be im- 
pressed with any teaching that is not illus- 
trated in the life of the teacher, and we can 
never successfully teach others that which 
we have not; or, in other words, you cannot 
give your child what you do not i^ossess. If 
you are a coward, you cannot make him 
brave; if you are selfish, you cannot make 
him generous; no more than Christ can 
make his followers what he is not. He saves 



B^.« 



THE CA.RE OF CHILDREN. 151 

liis followers by putting His life within 
lliem. We must first have the Christ life 
with its righteousness, then implant it in the 
life of the child; then '^'wlien he is old he 
will not depart from it/' 

1 have read of a violin, that no matter who 
drew the bow, it spoke of the skill of the 
master. Of course this is a poetic fancy. 
But when a little child is held on its mother's 
bosom, loved, caressed, nursed, bound to the 
mother s heart, prayed with and for, wept 
over, talked with, and wrought on for days, 
weeks, months and years, it does not take 
a strong imagination to say that that child 
will live out the mother's life and reproduce 
the mother' s heart with the strength of two 
hearts. 

John Kandolph said: ''I used to be called 
a Frenchman because I took the French side 
in x)olitics, and I should have been a French 
Atheist had it not been for one recollection; 
that was the memory of the time when my 
de]3arted mother took me away and caused 
me to kneel and say: " Our Father, who art 
in heaven," etc. 

What more can we hope to give the child 



152 THE CARE OF CHILDREN. 

for time and eternity tlian our convictions 
of truth woven into character as they go 
forth into life. What more ought we to ex- 
pect in the great gathering of saints and sin- 
ners, than that they shall be found with us. 
Our homes are but the type of the home we 
make for ourselves; and in just so far as 
Christ works in us, will He Avork for us in 
the preparation of that mansion which is 
eternal. 

I have read of a father and son ship- 
wrecked. They chmg to the rigging for a 
time, and then the son was washed off and 
the father saw him no more, until he, too, fell. 
In the morning, when the father was rescued 
in an unconscious state and found him- 
self on a soft bed, he turned his head, and 
there lay his son a bed by his side, having 
been rescued by the same kind hand. The 
fishermen on the beach had rescued both. 

So, one by one, we are being swept by the 
tide of death, but if one in Christ, we shall 
Avake in the mansion house, face to face with 
all our loved ones. God grant that our 
broken circles may be reinstated in the fair 
land of immortality is my sincere prayer. 



SEVENTH ADDRESS. 



Faults o? Ghildrei^ as Seen bg 
Parents. 



Jf f oolisb son i$ the bcjiviness of bis tnotber. 

-Solomon, Pro^* X-i. 

Eli's sons made themselves vile and he restrained 
them not. — I. Samuel, 3-13. 

I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. It is 
n® good report that I hear; ye make the Lord's people 
to transgress. — Eli — I. Samuel 2, 23-24. 

Heaven lies about us in our infancv. — Wordsworth. 



CHILDREN AS SEEN BY PARENTS. 



When the hearts of parents grow old 
under the warm and tender influences of the 
Spirit of God, they are sure to become 
lenient. Time mellows such hearts, and they 
should be admired and reverenced by all 
who seek the good of home, school and 
society. To be with such spirits is to be in- 
spired by their utterances and cheered by 
their benedictions. 

1 would that all the children of this gener- 
ation could appreciate the blessing of such 
teachers. It is of untold value to the open- 
ing mind of the young to be able to sit by 
the big arm chair aud see the saintly grand- 
sire lay aside his spectacles, look into the 
face and heart of his child or grandchild, 
and start in for an hour' s chat. Those who 
have never had it, of course cannot appre- 
ciate or miss it. Nay, only those who have 
known the thoughtf ulness and care developed 
by such hours can fully realize what it is to 
home, I am glad that the patriarchs do not 



1^6 --^ -" FAULTS OF CHILDREN 

stay away when the minister directs his 
words to the young. I sincerely hope the 
day will soon come when the young people 
will return to that companionship with pa- 
rents and teachers that shall create an in- 
terest, mutually entertaining and profitable. 

I am not sure that the tendency to seiDa- 
rate the young from the aged in matters of 
commerce, literature and worship is wholly 
profitable. I admit that many things can 
be said in favor of young people organizing 
and holding services by themselves, for I 
know it will develop an individuality and 
interest in the work and responsibility 
for the same that cannot be developed in 
general lines of work; but if that kind of 
advice helps to excuse from the general 
services of the church and from financial re- 
sponsibilities in connection with the general 
interests of the church, I am absolutely sure 
it will be detrimental to the cause and to the 
young people themselves. 

To-day every interest, commercial, social, 
political, ecclesiastical and religious is writ- 
ten up for the young, which seems in itself 



AS SEEN BY PARENTS. 157 

to be all right, and there is more to be said 
ill favor of the young people having their 
own papers, magazines and books than on 
any other line; hence vre have the paper for 
the aged, the middle-aged, the young man, 
the youth, and the infant; but suppose the 
reading of these works shall separate the 
children from the parents, in all their mental 
activities and achievements, and we are 
forced to live in two or more worlds while 
passing from the cradle to the grave; we 
must leave the young and enter that of the 
old, with little that prepares us, and at a 
time when it is not easy to take up new lines 
of thought and reading; nevertheless there 
will come a time when you and I will have 
to leave the young people's world and enter 
that of the venerable seers. 

Personally, I believe it would be better for 
the general interests of the church, the 
social interests of society, and the financial 
interests of the state, if we could have the 
cream and the illustrations of all these pub- 
lications set forth in one paper, and the 
amount of money expended to keep up the 



158 FAULTS OF CHILDREN 

separate funds and editorial departments ex- 
pended under one head. 

I was intensely interested a few days ago 
in one of our homes to find a mother who 
had given her time and energy to the child- 
ren by going through with them every text 
book, learning every lesson, of every child, 
from the primary to the graduating exer- 
cises of the University. That woman to-day 
is as young as any child she has, as fresh 
and buoyant; and the youngest child is as 
thoughtful, candid and reverential as the 
mother. To my mind that is the best type 
of human society. 

The first fault seen by the parent '4s an 
unwillingness to adopt and approve of the 
published faith of their fathers." I say ap- 
prove, because there are so many who pro- 
claim one thing and approve and publish 
another. This is true of both parents and 
children. Some years ago a gentleman came 
into the village of Houlton, Maine, to secure 
a home and make arrangements for his son 
to attend school. He was known to be an 
advocate of infidelity, but he sought and 



AS SEEN BY PARENTS. 159 

found a religious home where prayer went 
up daily from the family altar; and said, '^ I 
do not hesitate to say that I w^ant my child 
brought up under religious influences/ ' Now 
that man talked one thing and believed an- 
other; and he was only one of a thoasand 
who, perhaps half unconsciously, proclaim 
one and approve another theory. 

Joseph brought his children to the bed- 
side of his father for a blessing; and as the 
old saint looked back over the checkered 
life he had lived, he said: ''The God before 
whom my fathers did walk, the God which 
did feed me all my lifelong unto this day, 
the angel which redeemed me from all evil, 
bless the lads I'- 

That to parents is the one inestimable 
legacy for all children; hence the chief fault 
as seen by the parents is that ^'The young 
do not receive the blessings sought for them 
by the fathers." No greater blessing can be 
wished for than that the God of Abraham, 
Isaac and Jacob should be theirs; and there 
are not a few young men who feel as the 
fathers felt. There are multitudes who de- 



i6o FAULTS OF CHILDREN 

light in the thought of being in the line of 
promise, and being the children of those who 
have lived and died in possession of the 
faith once delivered to the saints. Many re- 
joice more and take a deeper sense of pride 
in the thought of having had christian par- 
ents and inherited in them the fruits of 
Christianity than in anything else the world 
has to give. Indeed, I doubt if you could 
find a boy or girl of moral habits and a fair 
degree of intelligence, who would exchange 
his or her christian inheritance for anything 
this world has to give. They prize it more 
highly than that of having been born of 
Princes and Nobles, and they speak of it 
with more pride than the struggling apolo- 
gist, who holds himself in line by reciting 
the fact that his mother's uncle or his first 
wife's grandfather was a grandson of one of 
the Lords. Yes, invaribly, men overtaken 
with sorrow, poverty or distress, will tell 
you that they've an uncle or a grandfather 
who was a minister, and that their people 
all belonged to the Church, with a feeling 
that allies them with the real aristocracy of 



AS SEEN BY PARENTS. i6i 

heaven, and tliat tliiis i:)arta.king of the na- 
ture of Diety, they should be cared for and 
helped. And herein is a mystery: that these 
men who glory in the fact that their fathers 
and their grandfathers and great grandfathers 
have lived and died in the church should 
themselves stay outside, and like Hoppni 
Phineas, Absolem and Mammon, grieve 
their parents and bring them to premature 
graves by refusing to accept that which is 
absolutely essential to the affinity which 
makes possible union in happiness. 

This is the most grievous fault the child- 
ren of this generation have. Every christian 
parent asks, *'How can my children stay 
away from the feast i)repared, the worship 
offered, and the blessing promised?' • 

Reader, how do you account for this feel- 
ing and attitude of the young people? Why 
should any one feel a sense of shame at pub- 
licly confessing their faith in the religion of 
the fathers? Why do not they delight as 
much in wearing the jewelry of heaven as in 
boasting of their fathers? How can you 
suffer the Samuels and Hezekiahs to come 



i62 FAULTS OF CHILDREN 

into possession of that to which you are 
rightfully entitled, by neglecting the mer- 
cies of God? 

"Oh God, our help in ages past, 

Our hope for years to come; 
Our shelter from the stormv blast 

And our Eternal home. 

Under the shadow of Thy throne 

Still may we dwell secure: 
Sufficient in thine arm alone 

And our defense is sure." 

The second fault as seen by the parents 
'4s in the desire to store the mind with those 
tilings that so fully preoccupy the mind as 
to exclude the more lasting treasures of the 
kingdom." Very few young hearts appre- 
ciate tliis statement. They cannot see what 
the preoccui)ying of the mind with such 
things as create taste, desire and deliglit 
means to them. The result of sin is more 
serious than at first we think. 

John came home the other day with his 
school report, which read: Arithmetic 66, 
geography 47, writing 70, deportment 74; 
whole number in class 16, rank in class 16. 
''Well, John, that means you are at the 



AS SEEN BY PARENTS. 163 

foot of tlie class." ''I suppose it does." 
'* How did that happen ?" '' Don t know." 
^*Do you see that basket full of apples?" 
'' Yes, sir." " Go empty them into the cor- 
ner; then take the basket out into the wood 
house and fill it half full of chips." He did 
as his father bade him, not knowing the jDur- 
pose for which he was sent. Then said the 
father: ' ' Put in the apples. ' ' The boy piled 
them in as long as he could, then, looking 
up, he said: '^ The basket won't hold them, 
father." '^Why not?" ''Because it is 
half full of chips." ''That's the reason your 
mind could not hold the problems of arith- 
metic; the rules of grammar and the law of 
the school; it was preoccupied with chips," 
This illustration does not meet the Avorst 
feature of preoccupying the mind, for it is 
an easy matter to emjDty the mind of that 
which is distasteful and has not become a 
part of the mind; but when it is occupied 
with those things that furnish pleasure, en- 
tertainment and delight, it is not an easy 
matter to empty the mind, for they have be- 
come part of the mind, by creating a taste 



.M^ 



i64 FAULTS OF CHILDREN 

and interest in tliose things. Every boy and 
girl in love knows the first time the heart 
was captured by the boy or girl who to them 
was the prettiest, most charming and de- 
lightfully entertaining person in all the world, 
it Avas impossible for them to be perfectly 
happy unless they were in his or her pres- 
ence or doing something for them. Why? 
Because the mind was so fully and satisfac- 
torily occupied as to forbid the reception of 
anything else. It is just that which makes 
the preoccupying of the mind with trash and 
frivolity so harmful. I have seen men and 
women who were sensible in most things, so 
perfectly carried away with the creation of 
fancy as to be utterly unfitted for work, 
thought or improvement. If forced to meet 
engagements and attend to business, they 
fill in the hours with work and mistakes, 
chiefly mistakes, Avaiting to get to their room 
and the book, to see how Isabella got out in 
the ludf-read story. Oh, my precious young 
friends, think of that mother who has given 
her life to you for your comfort, pride and 
support, but is now forced to toil and sacri- 



AS SEEN BY PARENTS. 165 

fice because of your sMftlessness and in- 
ability to make your own way in the Avorld; 
or w^orse, to see that you have so long cher- 
ished doubt as to be an endless NO to all 
that is good and hopeful. Rememl)er, it is 
the wise son that maketh glad the heart of 
the father. 

The third fault that I call attention to '' is 
a disposition to dismiss Providence and sub- 
stitute science and philosophy. ' ' Tliis to a 
parent is most grievous, because in the earlier 
history of this country they were thrown 
into straits and conditions such as de- 
barred them from any other source of help 
than that of Divine Providence, and having 
learned of God's divine ministries and 
methods of supply, they do not see how any 
one can speak slightingly of or doubt its 
timeliness and satisfaction; and there are 
Jacobs many, who, having left home under 
forl)idding circumstances, to be thrown upon 
a stormy sea amid temptations and trials 
from Exodus to Goshen, threatened by 
famine, left homeless and penniless, to be 
brought providentially into home and 



i66 FAULTS OF CHILDREN 

plenty, and when threatened at the hand of 
their Esau, have seen the interposition of 
the Almighty, who knighted them as princes 
with power to prevail with *God and men, 
cannot understand how anyone can be 
indiflf erent to the promises of God or to the 
conditions that make those promises avail- 
able. 

To them it is a tested and unquestionable 
fact that ^'They who put their trust in the 
Lord shall not lack any good thing;" hence 
they cannot understand how people at any 
stage of life can persist in fighting life's 
battles single handed and alone; why don't 
they submit to God and receive His j^rovi- 
dential ('are? for this woukl remove all sense 
of worry and tax to keejo j^oung. There are 
those who exhaust the arts of the druggist 
to blot out the mafks of age and defy nature 
in her effort to crown with diadems of beauty 
surpassing anything that art ever put on the 
brow of a monarch. "'You are on the shady 
side of seventy, I suspect." ''IsTo," was the 
quick reiDly, ''I am on the sunny side, for I 
am on the side nearest glory." I wonder 



AS SEEN BY PARENTS. 167 

what this promise really means to the average 
young man of to-day: ''Put your trust 
in God and do good, and verily thou shalt 
be fed." To the average christian parent it 
means that under all circumstances, in the 
midst of difficulties, misunderstandings and 
mysteries God will meet all demands and 
supply all needs according to his riches in 
glory; and it would seem that those who 
have perverted the law of God and ceased 
to conform to its requirements will sooner or 
later learn by experience that the ways of 
righteousness are paths of peace, while the 
waj' s of the transgressor are hard. 

Dr. Davidson says: ''In my long experi- 
ence as pastor, I have found that ninety per 
cent of those men who come to me for helj) 
have turned away from or neglected the 
simi^le precepts of home and church in order 
to experience for themselves!" and you would 
laugh if you knew how completely and how 
often the average minister is taken in by 
gentlemanly looking fellows who appeal to 
them as the sons of clergymen, stranded in 
a strange city ; and much of this wandering 



^• '; -^-^^ '-^^ 



i68 FAULTS OF CHILDREN 

meandering is due to the indiscrete manner 
and method of presenting the truths and doc- 
trines in new robes and forms. They tell us 
that the system of faith which served the 
I)urpose so well in the days of the fathers is 
not sufficient for the sons of today; they 
must have a broader, more pliable system of 
ethics than those practiced by the fathers; 
and they sometimes cite illustrations like 
the following: ' 'The Eddy stone lighthouse 
was considered one of the finest in the world 
in its day, but there came a time when it 
would no longer serve the purpose, and a 
new Eddystone lighthouse, miles away from 
the first one was built, and they tell us No. 1 
served the fathers, but was not sufficiently 
brilliant for the children. Now there is a 
half truth in this, but the half truth per- 
tains to the location and condition of the 
lighthouse, not the light, for it was light in 
both places and the same kind of light, but 
the conditions of the sea had so changed the 
channel by the floating of great islands 
under tlie great sea, as to create bars and 
reefs, and lighthouse No. 1 was not in posi- 



AS SEEN BY PARENTS. 169 

tion to reveal the dangers created by the 
change in the channel, so a new lighthouse 
was demanded for the purpose of throwing 
the light onto the danger newly created. 

So those who think that the religion of the 
fathers, the chart and the Bible, and evangel- 
ical beliefs are not sufficient for the claims 
of the hour, fail to distinguish between the 
gospel of the Son of God and the means of 
getting it before the people. It is true that 
the waves of modern criticism, scientific in- 
vestigation and evolution, dashing against 
the old methods of thought and arguments, 
have disturbed many things, but not one jot 
or one tittle of the Truth has in any sense 
been disturbed. It was the gospel of the 
Son of God that saved the fathers, and that 
alone can save the children; the efficacy of 
pardon, and the necessity of regenera- 
tion abide the same in all ages, under all cir- 
cumstances. I invite you, therefore, young 
men and young women, to the good old- 
fashioned religion of your fathers and the 
Bible which they read and the Cross on 
which the world hangs its eternal expecta- 



lyo FAULTS OF CHILDREN 

tion. Give not up this precious book— make 
it the counsel and guiding star of your life. 

See the poor girl who received a letter 
from her lover across the sea thirty years 
ago; in it is a promise of his return, which 
she has cherished for thirty years. Like 
Holland's ''Crazy Kate,'' she stands on 
the rock gazing hopefully across the sad- 
dened sea into the yellow sunset, if per- 
chance she may catch a glimpse of the long 
expected one who promised to return for 
her. Who is there that could be so inhu- 
man as to tear that letter from her hand and 
throw it into the waves. It is all she has 
from over the sea. Just so, the Bible is all 
we have. It is the one regenerating, re- 
demptive agency of the world; the only 
sound that ever came to us from the other 
side of the waves. If we lose it, we lose 
everything. How cruel, yea, inhuman, that 
spirit which unsettles the confidence and 
faith of the young in the Bible, until 
they have something better to oflfer. When 
the saintly father of Dr. Davidson was 
nearing the heavenly port he wrote on 



AS SEEN BY PARENTS. 171 

the fly-leaf of his pocket Bible this original 
poem: 

Stand still and see vny waking soul, 
How near the waves of Jordan roll. 
The w^eary wilderness is past, 
And thou has reached its verge at last. 

And now anxious eyes implore 
The verdant banks of Caanan's shore. 
That land of God's best blessing blest, 
Where Israel's pilgrims ever rest. 

There, washed all o'er in Jesus' blood; 
As Naaman was in Jordan's flo®d. 
May this sick, sin-polluted soul 
Be made like him, both clean and whole. 

Now let me plunge beneath the tide. 
Safely emerge on yonder side. 
And thus exchange earth's poor alloy 
For an eternity of joy. 




"When the standard of the Union is raised and waves 
over my head — the standard which Washington planted 
on the ramparts of the Constitution — God forbid that I 
should Inquire whom the people ha e commissioned to 
unfurl it and bear it up! I only ask in what manner, as 
an humble individual, I can best discharge my duty in 
defending it/' — Daniel Webster. 



EIGHTH ADDRESS. 



Ideals. 



I 



''Tndustrious wMm often Am prevent 
li}Ut lazy folly tbinKs incvitaDle/^ 

-Old Play* 

" Strength and wisdom only flowei 
When we toil for all our kind." 

— Lowell. 

"Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise." 

— QUARLES. 



IDEALS- 



Ideals represent and possess a power few 
have any idea of. When once their minds 
are turned to them they grow to immeasur- 
able proportions. Dr. David Greggs, in his 
excellent book on Ideals, presents as an il- 
lustration of power the effect on a ragged, 
unkept child, who in her wanderings through 
the market place in an Italian city came in- 
to the presence of the statue of a Greek slave 
girl. The form represented a slave tidy, 
well dressed and handsome. The poor girl 
stood and gazed at it with admiration. She 
hastened from that place to wash her face 
and comb her hair. She returned to gaze 
again and again, until her torn garments 
were washed and mended, and her whole life 
transformed. That statue was not only an 
ideal, but an inspiration. Happy, if young 
men and women would study the lives of 
those who embody and illustrate the prin- 
ciples of real greatness, for they have an ad- 
vantage over that of studying abstract prin- 



IDEALS. 176 



ciples by adding the results of application. 
Therefore they who study the lives of Henry 
Wilson, Isaac Rich, Michael Faraday, James 
A. Garfield, and others of similar character- 
istics, may dwell amid the fruits of indus- 
try, thoughtfulness and conviction, persist- 
ently, practically and religiously applied. 
They may never have solved the problems 
of poverty amid environments of slavery. 
Henry Wilson solved them. He was bom 
under a mortgage, suffered for want of food, 
educated himself, commanded the attention 
of the world, and died in advanced years high 
in honor, to be known in history for all time 
as a " Christian Statesman." This he did by 
applying the powers of his triune nature 
practically and conscientiously. Is it of no 
value to a young man to know that he who 
gave Boston University one and three-fourth 
millions of dollars, walked from Cape. Cod 
to Boston, with three dollars as capital with 
which to go into business? He hadn't 
money enough on earth to pay the care fare. 
His first investment Avas in three bushels of 
oysters, which he wheeled into market in a 



^ 



IDEALS. 177 



borrowed wlieel-barrow, and with a three 
cent pepper box, some iron knives, and upon 
a board by the side of the street, peddled 
them out. Thus began the millionaire — a 
man that the livery men of Boston dared not 
trust for the board of a horse, so he wheeled 
his supplies three miles in a wheel-barrow 
with his own hands. 

Study the life and deeds of Faraday, Eu- 
rope' s newspaper boy and mightiest chemist, 
as one and the same person. Or Shake- 
speare, Milton, Homer, Bacon, Luther, Lin- 
coln or Garfield ; men who wheeled their 
fortunes and blacked the students' boots 
with a zest and success that enabled them to 
rise in eminence and strength. To them suc- 
cess was in being able to do better work as 
they moved up the scale of responsibility. 
Why are there so many men sitting in the 
shade of a little petty victor}^; men with just 
money enough to keep the wolf from the 
door living without work, to be fed, clothed 
and waited upon as they get out once or 
twice a year to vote against improvements in 
order to keep taxes down ? Why, because 



'■'y^W^ 



17S IDEALS. 

of low ideals. It may be all right for 
spiders to plan and build on the wasting 
banks of time, but man is too large to be 
satisfied with the achievements of Nehemiah 
or Nebuchadnezzar, that ended in the dust. 
What if with Napoleon men succeed in 
crossing the burning sands of Egypt and the 
icy ways of Russia, in command of willing 
subjects, or if with Cyrus they turn the 
Euphrates from its wonted course and shout 
''Victory" across the plains of earth, that 
must end when " The lion and the lamb lie 
down together." What then ? 

What if with our own honored conqueror 
men secure the honors of war, reign success- 
fully in peace, and be greeted with honor in 
every port on earth, is there nothing grander 
and greater than this little earth, tossed in 
the rays of the sun like a foot-ball on the 
school ground? Must immortal man, in- 
spired of God, die without seeing that king- 
dom where illimitable space, with boundless 
wealth, offers to all the privilege of behold- 
ing and doing until they reach perfection in 
manhood ? 



IDEALS. 179 



It is said the Duke of Brunswick gained 
two and one-fourtli millions of diamonds and 
housed them in a vault in his. house. Then 
he entered to worship them. None save his 
servant, who held the key and knew the 
combination was allow^ed to visit him . There 
the duke stayed with- revolvers in hand and 
a chime of bells at his head, touched by a 
small wire that surrounded his whole house. 
There he dwelt fearing hourly lest his ser- 
vant should betray him — or be he murdered 
— watching his speechless treasures, waiting 
for death to release him and render him pen- 
niless. That was his ideal. 

When Charles Sumner stood in the senate 
of this republic men revered him, and bowed 
down before him, as the great senator from 
Massachusetts. That was his ideal. 

When Henry Wilson fell, there came a 
hush over this country, and at the gateway 
of glory a welcome. He had few jewels, less 
robes, but he had the confidence of all who 
knew him, the approval of God. 

Mr. Garfield's ideal was unique and high. 
Said he when asked to stoop for policy's 



i8o IDEALS. 



sake: ''I must have the respect of James 
A. Garfield." That to him was worth more 
than anything policy could confer. 

It is well for all young men to keep com- 
pany with these beacon lights ; live and com- 
mune with Hamilton and Henry, Madison 
and Adams, Jefferson and Eandolph, Knox 
and Washington, Webster and Clay, Sum- 
ner and Wilson, Franklin and Edison, Sher- 
man and Grant, Chase and Lincoln. For- 
tunate are the men who keep in touch with 
the self-reliant, kingly spirits of such leaders 
and conquerors in this hour of subtle prob- 
lems, for they will inspire the best prepara 
tion for the age into which we have come. It 
means much to succeed in the year of our 
Lord 1900. Once men could lay and work 
their plans with the assurance of success. 
Not so to-day. This is an age of emergen- 
cies. The unexpected and never anticipated 
is constantly happening, calling for the 
keenest intellects and the steadiest nerves. 
Preparation is in view of the unexpected al- 
ways. Some years ago a gentleman in Chi- 
cago lost $25,000 one day between the hours 



. .^ IDEALS. i8i 

of 2 and 4 p, m., and many of his neighbors 
lost more. They became wild, all their plans 
were frustrated and they overcome ; but my 
friend seized the opportunities and before 10 
o'clock the next day liad made $40,000 out 
of the debris. He who goes forth -without 
needful preparation will be derailed and 
wrecked. Therefore the wise keep company 
with thinking men that they njay? learn to 
think consecutively, Thinking is one thing, 
thinking consecutively is another. It was 
not simiply thinking that produced the 
watch so small as not to be noticed on the 
finger of a lady, beneath her dress glove, and 
yet so perfect as to run for a year without 
the variation of sixty seconds. 

It was trained thinking that held an en- 
gine in the brain of CoUis until acres 
stirred at his will; but, gentlemen, such 
thinking costs something. Never be satis- 
ged short of the best tools and the best re- 
sults. 

Dr. Crooks tells a good story of a boy who 
wanted an ax and went into a place where 
axes were sold for the purpose of buying one. 



i82 IDEALS. 



He saw some, bright and beautiful, but the 
price was beyond his purse. ''Well," said 
the man, ''I have axes that I will sell you 
at a lower price, but they are not bright." 
''No," replied the boy, "I want a bright 
axe." The dealer said: "I can make one of 
those bright for you, and if you will turn the 
grindstone I will do so." The boy gladly 
acceded to his proposition; but when the 
man began to bear on the grindstone the 
boys arms began to grow weary and he said: 
"Is it not done ?" "No," replied the man, 
"it isn't done yet." After a little the boy 
again said: ' ' It must be done now,' ' ' ' See,' ' 
said the man, as he held up the axe, " it is 
only speckled. ' ' He was weary and answered: 
' ' 1 like speckled axes best. ' ' Too frequently 
young men with rare opportunities are willing 
to go forth to hew their way through life's 
thickets with only " speckled axes." And 
being uplifted dwell in idleness until they 
are not expressible. Some months ago I was 
riding in tlie Green Mountains of Vermont 
and it was a bitter cold day. The car was 
very cold and I said to the porter : " Why 



IDEALS. 183 



don't yon heat np?" I saw that he had 
plenty of hard wood. " Well, Massa," said 
he, ' ' that ' ere wood is having a hard time to 
'spress itself throngh this old stove. Yon 
see it hasn't been doing anything all snm- 
mer." There are lots of people who haven't 
been doing anything all snmmer, and the in- 
terests of many snffer becanse of their in- 
ability to express themselves. 

The first ideal illustrated by these lives is 
that of helpfulness. They were the per- 
sonification of helpfulness, such as made life 
real. It is more than a play, entertainment 
or pastime. It becomes a series of duties 
and responsibilties demanding the whole 
time between cradle and coffin with largest 
sacrifice possible. It will stimulate every 
one to secure an education for life under all 
circumstances. 

Now in order to reach such an ideal, the 
young must decide early what things to 
leave out, and what things not to know; it 
were well in the run of eternity to study the 
secrets of entertainment, the rest of recrea- 
tion, the achievements of art, the revelations 



't^'^'M 



184 IDEALS. 



of science, the claims of social life and the 
responsibilities of public life; indeed it 
would be well had we the time to blend all 
the desirable characteristics of an Irving, 
Carlyle, Angelo, Winchell, Depew and 
Gladstone all in one, but life is too sliort; no 
one ought to hope to succed in all things in 
this life; he had better leave ought suT^h in- 
terests as are only ornamental and enjoyable; 
better go through life Avithout wealth, 
amusement, fame and recreation than to 
grow^ into manhood or womanhood ignorant 
and undisciplined; better from the lowest 
standard, for there is nothing that gives 
such fadeless beauty and permanent pleas- 
ure as a trained mind, cultured spirit, and 
courageous heart. 

General Gordon when in Soudan offered a 
native a drink of cold water, but he declined 
saying: ''I had a drink yesterday, and wa- 
ter is a luxury in this country; I cannot in- 
dulge in luxuries every day; it would lead 
to expensive living." The general said: ''I 
was impressed with the importance of being 
content with plain, nutritious food. Cer- 



IDEALS. 185 

tainly it would aid many in reaching liiglier 
intellectual achievements, and save from ner- 
vous and moral dyspepsia. There is strength 
in the old proverb: '^He who eats and drinks 
little eats and drinks much, for he lives 
longer to do so." 

Dr. John Hall, of New York, once said, 
that he found it a means of grace to stand 
before the great shop-windows on Broadway 
and thank Grod for the large number of 
things in the windows that he could do with- 
out. I have read of a little boy whose moth- 
er gave him a ring which he greatly prized. 
One day he lost it, and stepping aside he 
prayed most earnestly. His younger sister 
laughingly said to him: ''What's the good of 
praying about a ring; praying will never 
bring it back." ''Perhaps not, but praying- 
has done this for me it, has made me quite 
willing to do without the ring if it is God's 
will, and that is better than having it and 
being constantly anxious lest I lose it again.' ' 

But above all other considerations is that 
of health. Young men, you cannot afford 
to exchange that for pleasure, friendship, 



i86 IDEALS. 

wealth, or knowledge. Happy for this coun- 
try if our young men, in coming from the 
country to the cities, would stick to the home 
diet and the exercises that keejjs up physi- 
cal strength But there are some good people 
who seem to think that because Richard 
Baxter and Eobert Hall were invalids, Kirk 
AVhite was a consumptive, and William 
Cooper a dyspeptic, therefore delicacj^ and 
weakness are necessary to highest success. 
They forget, or never knew, that Max Cheney 
could outrun every fellow in his class and 
leap over a five rail gate; that Martin Luther 
could thrash any five of his persecutors. Nay, 
nay, physical health and strength is of first 
importance; and one of "the greatest sins of 
the American people, and one they should be 
most ashamed of, is that hundreds of thous- 
ands go down prematurely in death by the 
use of rum and tobacco. It is a burning 
shame ! Young men cannot aftord to ex- 
change the glory and strength of youth and 
early manhood for exhiliration and the stim- 
ulus of narcotics; even though we look at it 
from a business standpoint purely. He who 



IDEALS. 187 



indulges in them must fall short of life's 
best ideals. 

The second ideal these lives signify is that 
of manliness. Fix them in the heart and 
thought as having lived lives of integrity, 
unflinching uprightness, and undeviating 
truthfulness. George MacDonald says ''To 
know one person who is absolutely to be 
trusted will do more for a man' s moral na- 
ture than all the sermons he ever heard or 
ever can hear; to be able to build up a char- 
acter that others can rely on and can be ab- 
solutely trusted by those who know him, is 
an object worthy of any man's striving to ob- 
tain." I would that young men every where 
could get in love with the late sweet-spirited 
Field, for he only who cultivates the spirit of 
the masters can hope to become a master. 

I have read and reread the following de- 
scription of Mr. Field by Isaac H. Clothier 
in The Ladies^ Home Journal : 

''He was unlike the rest of men in some 
ways. He was a man in every thought, in 
every feeling, yet he had the tender heart of 
a woman, with the simple nature of a child. 



IDEALS. 



No man ever knew Eugene Field's true and 
better self but he was made better for Ms 
contact with it. He made men love children 
as no man ever did before him. Childhood 
is a sweeter thing to thousands of men be- 
cause of this man' s love and reverence for it. 
If his verses breathed of his love for child- 
hood, his nature, when you rubbed up 
against it, exhailed it and you caught the 
- glow. A child always seemed something 
sweeter, nobler and more sacred after Eugene 
Field had spoken of one to you, or had read 
some of liis childhood verses to you. He 
was happiest when in the company of child- 
ren; truest wiien he sang of them. It is not 
strange, then, that he was beloved of women 
as well as of men. And how few men there 
are capable of eliciting and holding the af- 
fections of both sexes. We find men i)opu- 
lar with men but not pojpular with women, 
and vice versa. But this soulful man was 
loved by both. Women who knew Eugene 
Field always felt that they were understood. 
And they were. Their confidence in him 
was not misi)laced. He never disappointed 



IDEALS. 1S9 



a woman. In liis eyes a woman was some- 
thing sacred because she could be a mother. 
He always felt that a woman was in closer 
touch with her Creator than men are, and he 
said this to me of his wife once. He cher- 
ished the highest, most reverent estimate of 
woman-hood — a virtue women are not slow 
to discern in a man. And they loved him 
for it. 

' ' It is not easy to see such a man leave the 
world. For that reason, perhaps, it was so 

impossible to write of him when the shock 
of his going w^as fresh. The wound at the 
heart seemed to stay the pen. For those 
who knew him best, loved him so, loved him 
as one is apt to love a man only once in a 
lifetime. His attraction was something in- 
definable. Faulty, as all men are, his better 
and higher qualities were blended in such a 
way as to form a magnet from which you 
could not loose yourself. Pettiness never 
found a resting-place in his nature. His 
heart was as big as the trees under which he 
was born on the old New England homestead, 
his generosity as free as the winds of the 



I90 IDEALS. 



West which he breathed. Perhaps too 
mindful was he of to-day; too regardless of 
the morrow, maybe. But what a to-day it 
was, and how he lived in it — ever thinking of 
others, rarely of himself. It seemed some- 
times as if he worked harder only that he 
might give greater joy to those around him. 
The ^'dear little sweetheart" of his home, of 
whom he often sang so tenderly, was the 
dearest woman in the world to him. His 
family was his altar. He filled his home as 
few men are given to do, and yet to his 
friends he never stinted himself. He was too 
royal in his nature and of such broad sympa- 
thy and warm-heartedness that he took in 
every one. He loved all mankind, even to 
the smallest and most wretched beggar on 
the street. 

It is not strange, then, that the world 
seems just a bit lonely now to some of us. 
The world in which he lived will never be the 
same without him to those with whom he 
shared it. Only once in a while can a man 
drop out of seventy millions of people, and 
leave behind to thousands a sense of being 



IDEALS. 191 



actually missed. But of Eugene Field it can 
be said, and said truly: 

" His life was gentle, and the elements 
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up, 
And say to all the world, 'This was a man' !" 

'^ There are some who will miss him more 
than others. But a definite something has 
dropped out of the lives of all who knew him. 
The world is better because he lived in it, 
but it also lacks something now that he has 
gone from it." 

It was that spirit of respect for the pure 
and bright that saved the young Hebrew 
lads. They could not accept the wines and 
the meats proposed by the King while they 
held the Hebrew idea of honor and integrity 
as sacred. Whenever I hear a young man 
denouncing everybody, saying there are no 
unselfish hearts, no God-fearing politicians, 
no high-minded statesmen, no pure men and 
women, I set them down as having fettered 
all their nobler powers, for there are to be 
found hundreds and thousands of saintly 
men and women in every christian country 
on the face of the earth; and because good 



192 IDEALS. 



men have lived and are living, it is easier to 
be good than it ever was before in the history 
of this world. Especially is it of advantage 
to those yonng men living in cities where 
manhood is tested as it cannot be tested in 
the quiet country-home, there everyone is 
conscious of the fact that he must walk 
straight for everybody knows him, he cannot 
hide, be he ever so humble a citizen; but in 
the great crowded city that restraint is taken 
away; he thinks and feels that nobody knows 
him or ever will know him. If he is invited 
to do those things which are questionable, to 
see the sights, visit the dens and places of 
crime, and is promised attentions and an in- 
troduction to those who can help him see 
life, unless he is governed by princi]3le rath- 
er than association, he will flatter himself 
that it is but for once, no one will ever know 
of it, and the temptation becomes strong, and 
if he yields it will be easier for him to yield 
the second time, and there is but one thing 
that can save under such circumstances, and 
that is an all-filling, all-possessing, all con- 
trolling purpose to be and do right, such as 
these men represent. 



IDEALS. 193 



Do you remember in that wonderful book 
of Victor Hugo, where Jean val Jean, the es- 
caped convict, who met with the old Bishop, 
who lovingly extended forgiveness for Jean's 
great crime; have you never read his own de- 
scription of the noble-hearted Bishop and his 
influence in making the decision that he 
would be something better than he had been; 
how the life and character of the Bishop in- 
spired him and led to his success in securing 
the confidence of the citizens in the city 
where his crime was committed, after he was 
elected as Mayor of that City. The Bishop 
was to him a high ideal. 

FOR GIRLS. 

I desire to set before my readers one ideal 
especially applicable to them. " Let a true, 
pure, noble, holy womanhood" rise above all 
other interests as the one aim of life. Dis- 
miss the old Mormon idea that heaven and 
happiness depend on being wedded to a 
man. Marriage is a good thing for a woman 
if she marry w^ell, but she does not need to 
be married in order to preserve her entity 
before Grod and among His angels. Make life 



^^^-^A^ 



194 IDEALS. 

one glorious reservoir of good, of blessing, of 
life, of peace, of joy, so that no one can meet 
you without going away enriched; then like 
the queen of the night you may wear the 
silvery white raiment, and shall always be 
beautiful, majestic and fadeless and clad in 
robes of righteousness, embroidered by the 
touch of the spirit, fearlessly enter the bridal 
chamber to greet the Lamb of God when he 
shall take to himself his chosen. In the old 
school of Athens Socrates and Plato insisted 
on their students cultivating a love for beauty 
in form, nature, ideals, and thoughts, and 
thereby rise step by step until they could 
enter the endless friendship of Deity; and 
in these years of riper scholarship and more 
perfect revelation no better pathway has 
ever been thrown up or greater inspiration 
revealed; there is nothing grander on earth 
or in heaven than a youthful heart, fully 
equipped, actuated by a pure love; the whole 
being becomes at once a delicate instrument, 
ready to respond to the touch of the masters 
in all halls and all worlds. Such queens will 
grace society with unaffected manners and go 



IDEALS. 195 



a long way toward making the manners so 
often denounced as liypocritical and mean- 
ingless, true and significant. 

The Interior in an editorial recently said: 
''There are many people who are not 
hypocrites in any other direction, but who 
never live up to their manners. They are 
habitually polite, cordial, obliging and sym- 
pathetic to every one they meet. But prac- 
tically they have not the virtues of which 
these manners should be, but the outward and 
visible sign. They have been taught, so to 
speak, to hang out the sign, and keep it in 
good order, with its letters bright and its 
legend clear, and there their idea of behavior 
ends. K'ot that they are vicious or unkind — 
but simply that the high manners have no 
high living behind them, and are but a 
mask, beneath which we suspect, dimly, a 
very different face from the unvarying one 
that we see smiling upon us. 

''The sincere soul will never strive after a 
manner that is not the simple, outward ex- 
pression of the inner man. We have no 
right to a fine manner unless we have the 



196 IDEALS. 



fine nature to which it belongs any more 
than a beggar has the right to steal an em- 
broidered cloak to cover his shabby rags. 
And the worst of it is that the delicate beau- 
ty of the cloak is, inevitably, smirched and 
degraded by the beggar's touch. What 
right has a fussy, egotistical person to a cor- 
dial, sympathetic manner? That belongs 
only to the warm, generous heart that it 
should express. What part has a selfish soul 
in obliging words and polite interests ? None 
at all. And it is because of this appropria- 
tion, by unworthy persons, of the manners 
that do not belong to them, that good man- 
ners are so often discredited in the eyes of 
those who have been deceived by their false 
owners; while, on the other hand, sincerity 
often takes refuge, most unwisely, in a 
brusqueness that is not really native to it. 
The real truth Jies between these two mis- 
takes. Let us use just as much of high 
manners as we have attained to in our hearts, 
not resting, year after year, until we attain 
more, and yet more, of beautiful outward 
expression, yet always guarding against the 



IDEALS. 197 



assumption of more than we have truly con- 
quered and possessed. So the manners and 
the nature will grow together, each reacting 
upon and developing the other, until the 
gracious beauty of the one will be but the 
transparent glass through which the fine 
harmony of the other is manifest; and so we 
shall know, and show, the true meaning of 
manners." 

Young friends, if you would know the 
secret of being self-reliant and not self con- 
ceited, courteous and gentle and not weak 
and feminate, refined and not affected, cour- 
ageous and not wreckless, cultivate an active 
brain and a pure heart, be positive and ag- 
gressive, and with honor, virtue and love 
pursue the highest ideals, until all positions 
in all cities and worlds are open to you and 
the Master presents you before the angels to 
be knighted at the hand of God in heaven. 



The InQage of the JVlaster. 



Bishop Thoburn tells a beautiful story about a picture 
of his dead child. It seemed a very imperfect photo- 
graph, so blurred that scarcely a trace of the loved feat- 
ures could be seen in it. But one day he took the pic- 
ture to a photographer, and asked him if he could do 
anything to improve it. In three weeks the bishop re- 
turned, and, as he saw the picture in its frame on the 
wall, he was start'ed. It seemed as if his child were 
living again before him. The image had been in the 
old picture, but was concealed beneath the blurs and 
mists that were there also. The artist, however, had 
brought it out in strong, living beauty until it was like 
life in its tender charm. In every true disciple of Christ 
there is the image of the Master. It may be very dim. 
Its features are overlaid by blurs and blemishes, and are 
almost unrecognizable by human eyes. It is the work 
of Christ in our lives to bring out this likeness more and 
more clearly, until at last it shines in undimmed beauty. 
This is what Christ is doing in many of his ways with us. 

*' Who from unsightly bulb or slender root 

Could guess aright 
The story of the flower, the fern, the fruit 

In summer's height ? 
Through tremulous shadows voices call to me, 
' It doth not yet appear what we shall be.' " 

—J. R. Miller, D. D 



NINTH ADDRESS. 



I^elps por Young }Aen. 



mm tbere is no vision the people pcrisb. 

-Solomon, Prov* 29-i$- 

No wrath of men or rage of seas 
Can shake a just man's purposes; 
No threats of tyrants, or the grim 
Visage or them can alter him ; 
But Avhat he doth at first intend; 
That lie holds firmly to the end. 

— Robert Herrick. 

Cheerily on the ax of labor 

Let the sunbeams dance, 
Better than the fiash of saber, 

Or the gleam of lance. 

— Whittier. 

From labor health, 

From health contentment springs. 

— Beattie. 



HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 



Age is not always a matter of years, but it 
is that of futures. A man is old when he 
has no future. With some this comes at 26, 
with others 95. There are scores in our vil- 
lages and hundreds in our cities who haven't 
had any future since Bull Run, Corinth, 
Shiloh, Pittsburg Landing, or some other 
battle of the Sixties. They were old at that 
time, and have been living in and dreaming 
of the past ever since. I do not speak of this 
slurringly; nay, not in the least — I honor 
them — but the fact and its influence on the 
life of the individual and society is what I 
call attention to. There were other men in 
those battles who Were not fortunate enough 
to have been hit; or, if they were, have not 
been able to secure a pension; hence, having 
no time to think or talk, they have been at 
work, reaching up and out into the unfold- 
ing future, and are young though 60 years 
are with them. They were lifted or driven 
out of dream-land into work-land, with 



■'-'^:i 



202 HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 

liope, and are now fresh, liaj^py and success- 
ful, in state and cliurch responsibilities. 

Because of this, I name Visions as one of 
the helps for young men.^ Cultivate visions. 
By this j^ou will escape despondency, iDessim- 
ism, and despair. It is the continued un- 
changing and unchangeable demands that 
worry and waste the average life. Variety 
is indispensible to the highest and best type 
of life. If our fields were to bring forth 100, - 
000,000 bushels annually, and our orchards 
as many bushels of apples, and prices were 
to hold steady at 81. 00 for wheat and 50 cents 
for apples, and other interests be held in 
keeping with these standards, men would be- 
come so discontented, unhapj^y and despon- 
dent that suicide would crowd our news- 
papers daily. It is far better for man and 
society that wheat crops be cut oflf . occasion- 
ally, and prices vary from 37 cents to $1.15 
I)er bushel, so that men may rise into moun- 
tain peaks and sink into valley shadows, and 
escape the dullness and weariness of the 
dead level; for it is the constantly traveled 
road that brings forth but one harvest, and 



HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 203 

that is dust. Nothing is more debilitating 
to youth than to dream of an empty past 
Some old men may lind real pleasure in 
dreams, for they have lived long enough and 
well enough to have had experiences worth 
re-living. But for enthusiasm and passion 
to be forced into the past and compelled to 
sit in the shadow of some deed or heroic con- 
flict, little achievement, or successful ad- 
venture of youth, cease to grow, and be 
compelled to recite by diij and dream by 
night of that little deed, is certainly a sad 
thing; and such is every visionless life. 
Every life that has nothing to reach after or 
strive for, will begin at once to retrograde, 
debilitate and die. Visions map out a future 
more blessed. They see the best life offers and 
inspire the man to plan for it. They beget 
energy and effort, until hope comes home 
with its olive branch of promise. Some say 
that visionary men always become fanatics; 
but that class of men never work up to the 
vision; they see the gift but go not after it. 
God has ordered that all men work outer up 
to their visions before they can secure the 



204 HELPS FOR -YOUNG MEN. 

full fruition of hope. When the mountains 
offer their sheltered bosom for observation 
and study, distance and climbing stand be- 
tween the student and that which his vision 
promises. Visions call on all young men to 
put away their dreams until they shall have 
climbed all mountains, opened all mines, 
measured all skies, sailed all seas, solved all 
problems. Then they will have something 
in mind worth dreaming about, and old age 
will never come. But will not such experi- 
ences lead to divisions, estrangements, and 
hopeless separations ? N^o, every body of 
men needs some good leader to inspire them 
for their best work, and good leadership is 
inspired by future stores, to be secured and 
appropriated by men who are not only in 
need of promised good, but believe it possi- 
ble to secure it. We need some good leaders 
with visions of good to create a general — yea, 
universal — inspiration in church and state. 

Dr. Joseph Tarker, of London, in an ad- 
dress to young clergymen, once said: '^If 
the church is not inspired, the ministry will 
not be, for the ministry is for the church. 



HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 205 

not tlie cliurcli for the ministry. He who is 
not ordained by the priesthood of the people, 
is not ordained, no matter how many jeweled 
hands have been laid on hi^ head." The in- 
spiration of the people gives the man a bet- 
ter conception and greater help than the in- 
spiration of any body of men that may be or 
have been chosen from among the j)eople. 
The age wants religion without cant, faith 
without effeminacy, and hope that is not pre- 
sumptuous. 

The second help I suggest, is that of the 
incarnation of some purpose sufficient to tax 
every poAver of the man, not simplj^ one fac- 
ulty or some part of his nature, but the man. 

You may have seen trees that were blown 
over in time of storm, three fourths or seven 
eignts of the roots unearthed. Most of the 
limbs were leatless and fruitless, but there 
were a few very large apples on the under 
limbs. Why this condition of things ? Those 
unearthed, unemployed roots were dead, and 
all the tree sustained by them in former 
years was dead. 

So there are millions in this age who may 



2o6 HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 

be termed lopsided men; men who have no 
connection with the woild other than through 
one line of thought or effort. They never 
think of anything other than their work; 
hence the brain becomes weak and inactive. 
You can find iron welders in our great fac- 
tories who are entirely ignorant of everything 
on earth outside of their room; weaverSj min- 
isters and teachers, reformers and theorists, 
who are so ignorant of law and results, 
cause and effect, as not to be able to answer 
the commonest question in the primary de- 
partment of life, yet proffering their counsel 
with an air of general sufficiency that angels 
never think of assuming; christians who have 
never grown one iota since they were convert- 
ed — they run down in public prayer like an 
old clock with weights. 

There was a time in the history of Jeru- 
salem when the king ordered it swept in 
view of finding one man who executed 
judgment and sought for truth. There were 
thousands who answered to roll call, but 
there were none in all the city that could 
claim the manliness of Shakespeare's Brutus. 



HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 207 

''His life was gentle, and the elements so 
mixed in liim that natnre might stand up 
and say of him: ' This is a man.' " 

There is a little incident in the life of Nel- 
son which shows the value of purpose. When 
but fourteen years old he saw a polar bear 
attack an English soldier. Seizing a hand- 
si)ike, he rushed at the beast with a boldness 
that put the bear to flight. When one of 
England's private soldiers chided him for 
his wrecklessness he said: ''It was duty,, 
and when duty calls I know no fear." • That 
act showed a manliness that characterized his 
whole career. He could not have stood be- 
fore our pugilists for one minute, but in 
time of national honor he was worth more 
than a regiment of pugilists. He had a 
sense of duty that possessed, directed and 
inspired him — a purpose large enough to hold 
him in emergencies. Brilliancy and position 
without purpose are weak. 

When Alcibiades came into the arena of 
Grecian conquest, the world looked to him 
for great things. He was well born, fair to 
look on, eloquent in speech, well educated; 



2o8 HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN, 

but Grreece needed some leader with manli- 
ness and heroism — which he had not — hence 
he helped to ruin rather than save the king- 
dom. He lacked purpose, and lived and 
died a brilliant failure, consumed by the 
fires of his own thought. 

How different the life of Baxter; feeble in 
body, environments most forbidding, yet 
with a sublime purpose, he lifted single- 
handed one of England' s worst districts and 
shook it in the breeze of heaven until it was 
purified. 

A careful, observing mind may find, any 
night, an innumerable company of active, 
sensitive minds, discussing the question of 
why things don't impress them as they did; 
why truths don't interest them as they once 
did. To the teacher this is easily answered. 
He knows that they have changed their asso- 
ciations, chosen other companions, and un- 
consciously taken on other life, such as 
brings forth results not looked for or antici- 
pated. Perhaps they have undertaken to re- 
gain their old time sense of honor and self- 
respect without breaking their old com 



w 



HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 209 

panionsliips. They lionestly denounce sin, 
seek God, and mean to be good. They go 
to the altar, attend Sunday school, and yet 
they are not converted. j\Ien despair of 
ever reaching them by an appeal that can be 
made to the conscience, simply because they 
will not give up their wicked companions. 
They have no purpose sufficiently strong to 
control them when under temptation or in 
conflicts. 

Some years ago a young man in Pittsburg, 
aroused and led to take steps tow^ard his con- 
version, still clung to his old companions and 
drifted back into his wonted course of sin. 
He married a beautiful young woman, who 
held him in society. One day it was rumored 
that Smith had sold out his saloon. Two of 
his neighbors met and asked if it were so. 
Said one: '^And Avell he might, for Smith, 
you know, lives on Mount Washington, 
right near me, where he has an excellent 
wife and three as pretty children as ever 
played outdoors — all boys — the oldest not 
over nine, and all about the same size. Smith 
is a pretty respectable sort of citizen; never 



2IO HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 

_ ___ 

drinks or gambles, and thinks tlie world of 
his family. Well, he went home one after- 
noon last week and fonnd his wife ont shop- 
ping, or away from home for some reason. 
He went on through the house into the back 
yard; and there under an apple tree were the 
little fellows, i)laying. They had a bench 
and some bottles and tumblers, and were 
playing saloon. He noticed that they were 
drinking something out of a pail, and that 
they acted tipsy. The youngest, who was 
behind the bar, had a towel tied around his 
waist and was setting them up pretty freely. 
Smith walked over and looked into the pail. 
It was beer, and two of the boys were so in- 
toxicated that they staggered; a neighbor's 
boy lay asleep in a drunken stupor. ' My 
dear boy, you must not drink that,' he said, 
as he lifted his six year old bo j^ to his bosom. 
'Why, papa, we\s playing saloon, and I was 
selling it just like you do.' " The lather 
never sold any more. He awoke to the fact 
that his boy was proudly taking on the life 
of the father, with whom he associated. Then 
and there he yielded to a purpose never 



HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 



to sell another glass of intoxicating liquor. 
That Avas the secret of his reformation. 

The next great help is a habit of industry. 
There are hundreds and thousands of men in 
this country who are not lazy; but they are 
idlers. They have never learned the value 
of time, or how to be profitably employed. 
Habits of industry would soon remove that 
congestion that now causes our large cities to 
groan with poverty and distress. He who 
inspires men to cultivate habits of industry 
is worthy of great honor and will find his 
reward. 

It was work that gave Dickens his success. 
While in Boston, during his second visit, he 
strictly secluded himself from all friends, 
save one or two, and studied carefully his 
own writings before reading in the evening, 
though he had given them five hundred 
times, he said he could not think of reading 
a new poem or any part of it without, at 
least, spending two months in preparation. 
On one occasion some choice friends called 
the day before he was to read in the evening, 
and he said, ^'I am expected to be at my 



HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 



best to-niglit-liow can I unless I take time to 
get ready. Good morning." Here we find 
the secret of Dicken's success. 

The same was true of Jennie Lind. Often 
her friends were greeted with a piece of mus- 
ic in hand, and after a word, she would hum 
through a hard passage; if satisfactorily ren- 
dered she would chat awaj^ for a time; but if 
not, she would excuse herself, saying 
''Friends, I must conquer this music." Of 
her the fathers never tire talking. 

Even Sheridan's witticisms, which always 
seemed to be spontaneous and impromj^tu, 
Avere most carefully prepared, as it has been 
proven; and we shall iind, if we come to 
know the men of genius, that they were men 
of untiring effort, for there is no genius like 
that of hard work. 

Industry ought to trouble the whole earth, 
and remove congestion, so that our cities 
would not groan with poverty and distress, 
and work would be found for all men. In- 
dustry ought to teach us how to do all things 
with self respect. So often men only know 
how to do the work that is pleasing to them. 



HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 213 

and some are so elated by a little petty office 
as to forbid their ever doing anything for 
practical industry. 

But, sir, you hnvoforg^otten that most men 
are without capital, and hence cannot do if 
they would. This is not quite true. Capi- 
tal is not always represented by dollars and 
cents* some men would be without capital if 
they had thousands of dollars, while others 
who have not one dollar have all tlie capital 
they need in being able to make themselves 
current in our markets. AVorth is not in 
circumstances, times, advantages nor curren- 
cy; but in a thoughtful head, directing an in- 
dustrious spirit, to create circumstances, 
mold events, utilize matter, and make all 
tilings current, ever 3^ man ought to become 
lord of circumstances, not clay to be molded 
by them. To surrender is to take the place of 
clay; to break the chain of circumstances and 
create new, is to be potters of one' sown clay. 
That all men are somewhat dependent on 
circumstances, I admit; but that any man 
may make circumstances bow to his will, I 
urge; and none can hope to succeed until he 




214 HELPS FOR YOUNG MEN. 

is lord of the circumstances that surround 
him. 

If an artist fails it is because he dreams 
the time away that ought to be given to 
work. ''Know thy work and do it," was 
Carlyle's motto. This is the true mission of 
life. Industry brings jay unspeakable, fame 
immortal, with wealth eternal. 

Tennyson sings of the brook: 

''Men may come and men may go, 
But I flow on forever." 

Let not this beautiful couplet immortalize 
the brook and minify the lives of men, but 
lift up your eyes and look, for 

''The fields are white to harvest, 

The days are speeding by; 
Go work again ye workers 

And work until ye die. 

Yea, the night of death approaches. 

And angels in the sky 
Repeat the chorus ever, 

Go, work, and never die." 



"P^OME AND Social Life 

By H.W.BOLTON. 

Author of "Tne Soul's Cry," "Our Fallen Heroes," "America's Next 
War,'' and 'Reminiscences of the Late War." 

"This volume should be on every center-tabie and in every 
library. There is not a stale or drowsy page in it. It is as brisk and 
breezy, as enlivening and ente tainiTig - s the best page of Scott or 
Moore Every member of ihe ic^mnj, iiuui the snow-crowned sire 
to "Baby Tot,'' will be interested in it. it is a domestic idyl, and 
epic of rjarcntsand tilial attecion ; the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John 
of the Gospel of ITome. If you would allov/ tlie sacred precincrs of 
home, if yo: v.'ould endear the hearthstone and the family board, if 
you would intensify the bond of love and make home the place 
where angels would deliio^ht to dwell, and if you would so fill the 
house of your habitation with light brighter ihan the sun, perfume 
rarer than the breath of Lt-liotrope and mignonette, i.tponica or rho- 
dodendron, and with the incense of love sweeter than the honey of 
Paradise, so that chil.lren will reg'ret to leave and always return 
\^ith jov, follow the teaching of Home and Social Life, and you will 
accomplish the desire of your heart." — John ISIerritte Driver, 
Preacher, Author and Lecturer. 

"A benutifal and profitable gift, which will preserve its value and 
interest l<>ng after the festival hours of the year have fled. No more 
useful gift could be bestowed to the y3ung or old people of the 
family circle."— Zion's Iltrald, Boston. 

"With its sweet, yet practical thoughts of home and home-like, 
it is one of th-^ few brooks of the piesent d-^y that can be read with 
real profit and pleasure by every one " — Bellows Falls, Vt Times. 

"The Doctor stands at the -dooi of the book to welcom.e you * 
* * smiling and fuil of so-U, with gieat heartedness and good 
nature, * * * The home like feeling and flavor prevading every 
chapter, from the 're ollections of childhood" to the concluding 
thou.i^ht-s, must do good wherever the book may go." — J. W. Hamil- 
ton, I). D., Boston. Mass. 

"Dr. Bolionh s touched the soul of life in ihese graphic sketches. 
- '■"■'• Non'', who desire to give life its grandest coloring, can read 
this book wi'.iiout being stirred with the determination to so govern 
themeielves that their own hearts shall be more uiusicfu', their 
associates more joyful, and home mare heavenful."— George D. 
Lindsi',!). D., Portland, Maine, 

248 pages; bound in cloth, gilt lettering and edges; 
PRICE. 75 C, POST PAID, 

Address all Orders to 

H. AV. BOLTON, 

West Superior. Wisconsin, 



' wwm^ 



OUR FALLEN HEROES. 



This book contains a centennial address; memorial 
addresses on Heroes of the Civil war — Gen. U. S. Grant. 
Gen. John A. Logan, Gen. Phil Sheridan, Gen. Geo. 
Crook, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman — and address- 
es on The Soldier's Attitude, by the author; an address 
bv Gen. O. O. Howard on the Life and Character of Gen. 
Sherman; and an address by Dr. G. H. Corey on Wis- 
dom and War. 

What Others Sav of This Book. 

Dear Mr. Bolton: -If the joy of the true patriot — as Bolidgbroke 
intimates— is greater than the highest joy of student, author or dis- 
coverer, then have you by this timely volume placed within reach of 
every lover of this country, especially "of all the Boys of the Blue." 
a spring of jov, rich, beautiful and refreshing. 

Very truly, 

WM. FAWCETT: D. D. 

My Dear Friend: — I thank you with all my heart for yonr interest- 
ing volume, and for tti9 toachiag tribute yoa have patd to the 
patriots of the nation, and especially the one paid to General John 
A. Logan. 

MRS. JOHN A. LOGAN. 

The reading and repeated reading of these addrs^sses cannot fail 
to stir healthful emotions in the soul of all true lovers of our coun- 
try. 1 hope the book may have an extensive sale. 
Very truly, 

PROF. M. S. TERRY, D.D. 
Garrett Biblical Institute. 

This truly patriotic book discusses many subjects bearing upon 
American character and life. Among them are the "Centennial" 
"Fallen Heroes," "Generals Grant, Logan, Sheridan, Crook," 
*'Soldiers." 

Stirring and beautiful sentiments are given on every page by the 
eloquent gifted author, the Rev. Dr. Bolton. 

Such books, written in a broad but truly American spirit, are 
most timely contributions t* the literature of our country. Th-^y 
help to make our children feel that this - ountry is worth living in, 
and its institutions worth preserving. Around the hearthstone and 
around the camp fire this book will be read, and through its readiui? 
a deeper love will be kindred for the men who stand oui so resplend- 
entjy in the history of our republic. Nobler lives and a more ex- 
atled sense of American citizenship will be the result. 

Bishop SAM'L FALLOWS, D. D. 

Editor, home. School and Nation. 

PRICE 75C. 

W. H. Bolton, 

West Superior, Wis. 



o-f OF Coatq 

^^ RECEIVED ^ 

JUN 13 l89i^ 



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